publishing a phd thesis

Getting Started, Again A young scholar completes a Ph.D. thesis and is congratulated by the supervising committee. A first-rate work, it deserves the applause. “You must publish this, Pat, and soon,” one committee member says, and goes on to suggest two or three publishing houses to which Pat might now write. Encouraged by the response, Pat sends off the manuscript, fresh from the defense. Then the author waits, but it’s not a long wait. The manuscript comes back from the publisher. The pages, which appear not to have been disturbed, are accompanied by a note. It isn’t even a personal note, just a form letter. “Dear Author,” the letter reads, “Terribly sorry. We don’t publish unrevised dissertations.” The new Ph.D. is understandably frustrated. “If scholarly publishers don’t want what I’ve just written, why was I advised to write this, and to write it this way? I’m encouraged to publish quickly. My committee praised my work. But publishers don’t want it. What am I doing wrong?” The answer is easy. Pat wrote a thesis, not a book. A dissertation is written under the watchful eyes of a director and an advisory committee. Sometimes that structure may be a burden, or even an obstacle, for the writer. Having the wrong committee can make writing slower and more difficult than it need be. But whether one’s doctoral advisors form a well-knit team or a dysfunctional family, they form a support group, one handed to the writer by the university. Once you leave the institution where you were awarded your degree, that support structure can seem, in retrospect, a great asset no longer in reach. Your university’s requirements, down to the language of your dissertation proposal and the number of chapters your committee insists you produce, constitute a set of rules—a grammar, if you like—within which you produce the dissertation. That framework is both a harness and a help, and it.
You’ve got your PhD. Well done! You should probably begin to consider getting it published. If it’s the original contribution to knowledge a PhD is supposed to be, then the outside world needs to see it! In order to get your thesis published, there are various things that need to be taken into consideration. Prof. Naomi Segal-Publishing Your Thesis Sound File (14.6 Mb).
I published my PhD thesis as a book in VDM verlag. It publishes PhD dissertations and working with them is quite easy. The only problem is they put a relatively high price on your book and this might reduce the sale of your book. Due to this problem, I have received no royalty from my book yet. So if you think any other publisher can do better (financially) it is better you consider another publisher. Their publishing strategy is based on printing on demand. It means they publish a few copies of your book and sell them to some big libraries around the world. Then if an individual purchases your book online, they publish it for him as they receive the order. If you want to publish your book quickly and easily, you may want to use their service. for more information about their work see Wikipedia on VDM_Publishing or their website .
From PhD to First Book If you have finished your Ph.D. you are probably thinking of turning your dissertation into a book. Your Ph.D. thesis usually becomes your first monograph and helps you to start building a reputation in the academic world. Working on your first book is something that you may want to do during a post-doc fellowship (see our career tip on applying for a post-doc). Turning your doctoral thesis into a publishable book will require some adjustments and adaptation of the content and style. Although there is no single rule that can guide you in the process of getting a publishable book out of your Ph.D., some elements usually distinguish a typical doctoral thesis from a monograph. Below we provide some useful hints. The Four Qualities of a Book Turning your doctoral thesis into a book will require you to re-edit the text of your dissertation and revise its style. Your book will probably need to be more: personal focused essential readable The Main Differences between a PhD and a Book Dissertation Book Things Not to Do Never assume that even an award-winning dissertation is already a scholarly book Never assume that a publisher or a reader will treat a first book as a practice exercise Never submit a manuscript to more than one publisher at the same time unless you have received the consent of each to a multiple submission Never conceal from a potential publisher arrangements you have already made for the publication of chapters in journals or in edited volumes Never send a manuscript to a publisher unless you have been asked to do so Never assume that an award-winning scholarly book couldn’t have begun as a dissertation Title The title is the first thing a potential reader/buyer will get to know about your book. It will have to address in a direct and essential way the main content of your work within a specific discipline. For this reason, the title.