how to publish thesis as a book

How to... Convert your thesis into a book

This how to guide takes you through everything you need to know to convert your thesis into a book.

You can read all the information you need below, or watch this video from Books Commissioning Editor, Katy Mathers.

On this page

Consider the level of conversion.

• What are book publishers looking for

Consider the audience

• Tips for converting your thesis

What happens next?

Your first consideration when thinking about book publishing options for your thesis should be the level of conversion. You could consider the following options.

A full conversion – from thesis to book

This is a good option should your thesis be on a topic that would have wide appeal to an academic audience. A key consideration here is that the structure of a thesis is massively different to a book. Rather than starting with a hypothesis, a book should showcase a considered argument and its narrative should communicate that argument to peers in the field – demonstrating how the research has evolved into this viewpoint, and what impact it can have.

Partial conversion – using parts of your thesis in a book

Using parts of your thesis in a book usually means that you are conducting further research that might be ongoing, and might involve colleagues that might be a co-author on the project.

Partial conversion – a chapter in an edited collection

Perhaps your thesis doesn’t quite have the broad appeal for a full book conversion. In this case you might consider a chapter in an edited collection under a broader theme – this means you’re broadening the scope of your PhD research to a wider audience by collaborating with a team of contributors on an edited book. Look out for calls for chapters on relevant themes.

What are publishers looking for?

Broad (global) scholarly appeal.

• Remember your thesis is written for a handful of examiners and experts in your field and is partly there to demonstrate the expertise you have gained from your research. A book should have a much wider audience than that, and should be engaging and interesting enough to appeal to a broad section of researchers across your field (and potentially other disciplines as appropriate), and should particularly be accessible enough to engage any researcher interested in your topic of study.
• Single-country case studies won’t always translate well into a book given their focused scope, however, they would work as part of an edited collection with a broader global scope.
• A good book manuscript should focus on a coherent argument/narrative, rather than a step-by-step checklist of things you need to demonstrate in a thesis.
• You don’t need to include big sections or whole chapters on literature review or methodology, these can be weaved into the book as and when appropriate.

Development potential

• An original thesis should be regarded as the basis for an entirely new work, written with a new audience in mind.

Talking about your research and the process of working it into a book is one of the best ways to ensuring success.

Try reaching out to your immediate colleagues, and co-authors on published papers, your PhD supervisor, peers you might meet at conferences, with a publishing contact, or even online. Try asking for advice on twitter, or any professional network sites.

It is advisable to start a conversation with supervisors and other colleagues shortly after the completion of a PhD.

Once you’ve started to get a good idea of what you want to do, it’s also a great time to reach out to a commissioning editor at a publisher. They can advise on further considerations for turning your thesis into a book with a broad scholarly appeal, as well as how to fill in a book proposal form.

Following this, the next natural step is to submit a book proposal which will be considered by the publisher, often involving a peer review process.

The single most important thing to remember when converting your thesis is the audience. Your thesis is written for a select amount of examiners with specific expertise in your field and showcases your nuanced and rich expertise, which you have gleaned from your research in your particular area.

In contrast, a book should have a much wider audience and should be engaging and interesting enough to appeal to a broad section of researchers across your field, and potentially even other disciplines as appropriate.

As a book, your research should be accessible enough to engage any researcher interested in your topic of study.

• Realise which parts of your thesis are useful only to examiners. Any sections such as literature review, or extended methodology discussion should be cut or heavily amended/digested. These sections can weave in and out of your overall narrative rather than be structured separately.
• Writing style is less important for examiners, but essential for book readers. PhD examiners will read your thesis regardless of the writing style, but the writing style for book readers is essential for ensuring your research is accessible and engaging. You must be prepared to extensively re-write your thesis to retain and engage readers. This should be seen as essential rather than optional.
• Keep the big picture in mind. It’s important to take a step back while putting together a proposal, or during the manuscript writing process. Set reminders at intervals to focus on the overall narrative of the book. Is there a logical development of an argument? Does it make sense to a reader’s point of view? If not , be prepared to rethink the structure – it can be freeing to step away from a traditional thesis structure.
• Write concisely. It’s important to bear in mind the importance of the reader’s time. At all stages of the writing process you should focus on streamlining where possible and keep in mind the agreed length of the book. Books are often much shorter than theses, which by their nature contain much repetition. If you’re finding it hard to meet the agreed word limit, your writing style is likely not quite right yet for a book audience.
• Emphasise context. If your research is specialist and nuanced, with a narrow scope, try boosting its contextual implications by adding an international or inter-disciplinary context. It’s particularly useful to do this within the introductory and concluding chapters. Rounding off your book with opening and closing contextual chapters can really emphasise the place of the research within the field and showcase how it’s adding to the literature or breaking fresh ground.
• Get a third party proof-reader. Consider getting someone within your field, perhaps without the specialist knowledge relating to your PhD knowledge, and see what they think of your writing style. If they can follow your argument and find value in the work you’re presenting for the wider field, then the book has good potential. If they’re struggling, you might need to re-think the project.

Top tips for converting your thesis

• The main title of the book should position it clearly without reference to other bibliographic information, and should be as short as possible.
• Chapter titles are something people often forget, and chapter titles can sometimes be a real giveaway in a proposal that a book is based on a thesis and maybe hasn’t been revised appropriately. It’s often a comment reviewers make, and a clear sign to them that the proposal is a thesis conversion. Chapter titles can be way more dynamic in a book than in a thesis, and there’s no need to have chapters called 'methodology' or 'results'. Freeing yourself from these structured ways of thinking can be liberating, and is a good way of diverting yourself from writing in a thesis style.
• Remember that readers of the book are most interested in what your findings/argument are. Think about leading your book with the 'end' of your thesis, i.e. the results/answer to the question you were researching, rather than starting by explaining how you got there.
• You don’t need to include big sections or whole chapters on literature review or methodology, these can be weaved in to the book as and when appropriate (particularly if your research employed an innovative methodology, for example).
• A book manuscript should typically be shorter than your thesis. If you’re struggling to bring the word count down, you might need to get help with your writing style, or evaluate if you’ve cut enough “thesis-heavy” content from your work.
• Use introductory and concluding chapters to contextualise your research. This is super helpful for placing your work within the field.

To summarise

Be prepared to re-write: Having sketched out a new structure and focus, you now have to start writing all over again to create a completely new work. You should accept this as a must for success, and enjoy the creative process that comes with it.

Remove academic structuring: Ordinary readers want you to get straight to the point, Anything that sounds like "In this chapter I will argue . . ." or "In this chapter I have shown . . ." should be deleted immediately.

Audience is the most important consideration. Re-organise your writing around your new audience – remember that concise, narrative-led writing is essential.

Re-focus on the storytelling. Any background material (such as surveys of previous literature, historical background, discussions of earlier and current theories, arguments, methodology, etc.) if retained at all, should be moved from the beginning to the end of the book, or incorporated in a condensed form into the relevant sections of the main text. From start to finish, you should begin with an answer rather than a question, and your argument should be maintained throughout.

Once you’ve formed an idea for your book project, it’s a good time to talk to a commissioning editor at a publisher about submitting a proposal.

Get ready to publish a book

See a list of our book commissioning editors, along with their subject areas and contact information.

Submit your book proposal

Find out how submit a book or series proposal and what the next steps in the publishing process are.

The book peer review process

A helpful guide to our book peer review process.

Turning your PhD into a successful book

Requests regularly arrive in the Author Services inbox asking for advice about turning PhD research into journal articles or books. In this guide, first posted on the  LSE Impact Blog , Terry Clague, a Senior Publisher at Routledge gives his advice and insight into what publishers are looking for when they receive new book proposals.  

Research conducted as part of a PhD is valuable. It is valuable for the researcher, who has spent countless hours carrying out the work and it is valuable to those deciding whether the research should result in the award of a PhD qualification. But can the research be valuable to broader audiences? The simple answer is yes – at the heart of many successful academic books lies research conducted as part of a PhD. 

What options to consider when turning your PhD into a book

In the majority of cases, PhD research is published in the form of journal articles. In some cases, the research is published in a book. Between either end of that publishing spectrum there is an array of options to consider when it comes to disseminating PhD research: 

Converting the entire PhD thesis into a book  requires that your thesis covers a topic of interest to a large enough audience of scholars. Whereas a thesis starts with a question, a book begins with an answer and communicates its importance in the wider research landscape, tracing its evolution and impact. 

Using parts of a PhD thesis in a book  requires that ongoing and/or collaborative research is being conducted. A book (perhaps co-authored) should be greater than the sum of its constituent parts. 

Using an aspect of a PhD thesis in an edited book  on a broader topic ensures that the research fits with related research on a similar theme. A good edited book addresses the need to broaden the scope of PhD-based research via collaborating with a team of contributors. 

Splitting a PhD thesis into several articles  for journals hedges a PhD’s bets by staking smaller amounts of the work in different locations. What is gained by this hedging may be lost in the overall narrative of the PhD research as it is unbundled. 

What publishers look for when deciding whether to take you on

The role of the book publisher is to connect authors with readers. When it comes to disseminating research originating from a PhD, this relationship is essential. It is therefore useful to consider the perspective of the publisher when considering what publication route to take. In assessing a proposal for a research-level book, a good publisher will initially ask themselves three questions: 

Is the  scope  of the research broad enough to be of interest to our readers (scholars globally)? Example

Is the  quality  sufficiently high? 

Can the work be  developed  via feedback from experts as part of the book review process to address any weaknesses? 

Post information

Related posts, insights topics.

Beyond those core questions, potential authors should also consider significant and ongoing changes to the market for academic books, notably in reader behavior. Evolution in digital technology combined with a significant increase in the amounts of available research has led to changes in the way that books are produced, published and propagated. In this environment, the key word is “discoverability”. Connecting authors to readers requires that publishers facilitate discoverability of research via various routes to ensure that potential readers are able to find books with ease. Authors can aid this process by following a few basic rules of thumb: 

The main title of the book should position it clearly without reference to other bibliographic information, and should be as short as feasible 

Chapter titles should likewise, where possible, position themselves clearly 

Chapter synopses or abstracts can be used to enhance the metadata around books

Submitting a book proposal

It is useful to start a conversation with an acquisitions/commissioning editor at an early stage toward the end or shortly after the completion of a PhD. Discussions with supervisors and other colleagues are also very useful at this stage. The next natural step is to submit a book proposal which will be considered by the publisher, often involving a peer review process. Research-level books are often published as part of an established series – an awareness of existing books in such series can be useful when it comes to framing and developing a book proposal. 

Preparing your final manuscript for book publication 

Following a review process, the publisher’s editorial board would give final approval to proceed, following which a book contract would be issued. Armed with publisher and review feedback, the author can then proceed to produce a full manuscript based on their PhD research. Each book is different, but there are numerous key aspects to consider when preparing a final manuscript for book publication. Above all, never lose sight of the audience:

A thesis is written for examiners, a book for scholars in general . Anything that is useful only for examiners (e.g. literature review, methodology discussion) should be cut or heavily amended/digested. 

Examiners will work through text regardless of the writing style, book readers will not . Therefore, it is likely that extensive re-writing will be required to retain and engage readers. 

Take a step back . Think about the overall narrative of the book and be prepared to rethink the structure – this can be liberating! 

Value the reader’s time . Streamline where possible – theses by their nature contain much repetition. Keep in mind the agreed length of the book. 

Contextualize . If research is of a narrow scope, add international or inter-disciplinary context, particularly within the introductory and concluding chapters.

Sharing your research  

Finally, talking about your research and the process of working it into a book can be an essential ingredient to its success. This can be done with your immediate colleagues, at conferences and with a publisher. It can also be done online – with  social media a useful tool  to tap into wider networks as well as to test ideas out. 

Further Reading

European University Institute (Undated) –  From PhD to Book   Germano, W. (2005) –  From Dissertation to Book   Thomson, P. (2011) –  Can I Get a Book From My Thesis   Thomson, P. (2013) –  Turning Your PhD Into a Book   Veletsianos, G. (2016) –  Social Media in Academia , Routledge 

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How to Turn Your Thesis into a Book

Table of contents, introduction.

The transition from researcher to author can seem daunting, but turning a thesis into a book offers significant rewards. Publishing a book allows you to share your research with a broader audience beyond academia. It also helps establish your authority and expertise in your field.

A book enhances your brand and opens speaking opportunities, consulting engagements, and career options. However, writing a book requires reevaluating how to convey your ideas to non-specialist readers best. You must shift to a more accessible writing style and think creatively about crafting a compelling narrative arc.

For academic researchers, the thesis often represents the culmination of years of study in a specialized field. However, researchers can turn their thesis into a published book rather than let it collect dust. This allows them to reach a much wider audience with their ideas and establish themselves as authorities in their subject.

Books have a permanence and legitimacy that other mediums lack. While journal articles may have more prestige in academia, books make research accessible to mainstream readers. They have the potential to educate the public, shape dialogues in a discipline, inspire future scholarship and impact real-world practice. By publishing a book , researchers greatly amplify the influence of their thesis.

Yet, transitioning from researcher to author involves more than copy-pasting a thesis. It requires adapting to a completely different style of writing. Academic writing prioritizes precision, empirical rigor, complex language, and speaking to a niche audience. Books aimed at general readers use clearer prose, compelling narratives, and real-world stories and structure content more thematically.

Beyond making an original contribution to academic literature, publishing a book version of your thesis can provide career advantages and personal satisfaction. Turning a thesis into a book dramatically expands your audience and visibility. While only committee members may have read your thesis, a published book makes your ideas accessible to students, practitioners in your field, policymakers, journalists, and interested lay readers. This establishes your reputation as an authority on the topic.

With an academic book on your resume, opportunities for speaking engagements, consulting jobs, teaching roles, and media commentary will likely arise. Your work may even influence legislation or real-world applications of your research. On a personal level, adapting your writing style, finding your narrative voice, and connecting with readers can be deeply fulfilling. After spending years on specialized research, being able to articulate your insights to the public is incredibly rewarding.

Understanding Your Audience

When transitioning from writing a thesis to writing a book, it is crucial to recognize that the audiences differ significantly. Academic writing is geared towards a specialized scholarly community familiar with theory, methodology , and disciplinary conventions. In contrast, writing a trade book targets a more mainstream readership looking for an accessible and engaging narrative. As an author, you must identify who your new readers are and what kind of content would appeal to them.

Academic writing utilizes discipline-specific jargon, an impersonal tone, extensive literature reviews, and a rigid structure to establish authority on a narrow topic. Trade writing uses plain language, anecdotes, humor, and a flexible narrative style to captivate nonspecialist readers on a more universal theme.

Becoming an adept storyteller enables your specialized material to crossover to mainstream audiences. Master cliffhangers, plot twists, character development, and other devices to immerse readers. Share amusing anecdotes and clever turns of phrase to add flair. Stimulate imagination through vivid scenic descriptions. Pose thoughtful discussion questions to encourage critical reflection. Building rapport with readers amplifies the book’s real-world influence.

Adapting Thesis Content for a Book

Transforming a thesis into a book requires re-evaluating and restructuring the content for a more narrative-driven approach. Academic writing tends to be dense and technical, while general readers expect an engaging story and relatable concepts. As an author, you must balance retaining scholarly rigor and making the ideas accessible.

While academic texts impress with jargon and complex concepts, the general public loses interest quickly. As an author, focus on explaining ideas using everyday language. Define terminology and provide illustrative examples wherever possible. Break down complex arguments into step-by-step logic that is easy to follow. Quote outside experts to reinforce your points. Include stories and anecdotes to humanize the research. However, it upholds standards of intellectual rigor by substantiating claims and highlighting study limitations.

Personal perspectives allow readers to connect with the author and material more deeply. Share what motivated your research questions and discuss memorable moments from collecting or analyzing data. Describe conversations with study participants that illuminated key insights. Use examples from your own life to illustrate broader concepts. Occasional touches of humor also help. Such anecdotes breathe life into academic subjects. However, ensure that any personal information shared is appropriate and relevant to the discussion.

Crafting a Compelling Narrative

Academic writing often focuses solely on facts, theories, and data analysis. While important, this approach rarely captivates readers outside one’s field. Storytelling techniques offer a solution—they provide structure, conflict, and resolution to make the content more compelling. For instance, case studies allow researchers to frame their work around a specific person or organization, adding a human element. Techniques like foreshadowing, flashbacks, and cliffhangers also heighten narrative tension. Applying story arcs to research gives readers a reason to care beyond factual accuracy.

Weaving in real-world examples brings sterile academic concepts to life. For example, an economic treatise could profile a small business owner grappling with rising inflation. This puts a human face on monetary policy debates. Case studies also showcase how theories operate in specific organizational contexts. Infographics, photos, diagrams, and other illustrations make complex ideas more understandable. Using relatable examples and visuals helps concretize abstract arguments for non-specialist readers.

Writing Style and Tone

The shift from formal academic writing to a more conversational and engaging tone is key when adapting a thesis into a book for a general audience. Academic writing is often dense, technical, and aimed at a narrow group of experts. In contrast, trade nonfiction requires an accessible writing style that feels like a conversation with an intelligent friend sharing hard-won knowledge.

When academics write books for general readers, they must consciously work to transform their formal thesis prose into a more relaxed yet authoritative style. Sentences should generally be shorter and less complex. Technical jargon should give way to clear explanations and vivid examples. The text may directly address the reader through second-person narration and rhetorical questions.

While academic writing seeks an objective, impersonal tone, trade nonfiction benefits from revealing glimpses into the author’s experiences, passions, and personality. The strategic use of anecdotes about the writer’s intellectual journey in a candid first-person voice makes the book more approachable and involving for readers.

That said, professional decorum must be maintained while allowing one’s voice to emerge. Too much informality risks undermining the writer’s scholarly credibility. A thoughtful, nuanced take on the subject matter, with careful qualifying statements where needed, reminds readers that this is still an expert guiding them through complex terrain.

Occasionally, the author might consciously decide to retain some technical terminology where no equivalent plain language substitute exists or adequately conveys the precise meaning. In such cases, clear definitions should be supplied the first time such a term is introduced. The glossary can also be utilized for convenient reference.

By emphasizing quality over quantity of information and spotlighting the most critical insights from the thesis, scholarly authors can craft books that inform and enlighten readers without overwhelming them. The art lies in judicious simplification without distortion of meaning.

How to Turn Your Thesis into a Book: Navigating the Publishing Process

Exploring publishing options.

The traditional publishing route involves signing with an academic or trade publisher. This option benefits the publisher’s distribution networks, marketing capabilities, editorial services, and imprint credibility. However, competition is fierce, with low acceptance rates.

Self-publishing offers greater control and faster time-to-market, enabled by print-on-demand technology. Platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing make self-publishing accessible. The downside is that marketing and distribution remain the author’s responsibility.

Understanding Literary Agents and Academic Presses

Preparing your manuscript for publication.

Before submitting your manuscript to publishers or self-publishing, it is crucial to ensure it is polished and ready for publication. This involves careful editing and proofreading to eliminate any errors or inconsistencies. It is also important to format your manuscript according to the publisher’s guidelines or industry standards. Creating a visually appealing and well-structured book will enhance its professionalism and appeal to readers.

Creating a Book Proposal

When submitting your manuscript to publishers, it is common practice to include a book proposal. This document provides an overview of your book, including its subject matter, target audience, market potential, and competition analysis. It is also important to highlight your qualifications and expertise as the author. A well-crafted book proposal can help publishers understand the value and marketability of your book.

Marketing and Promotion

Navigating the publishing process can be challenging, but with careful planning and consideration, turning your thesis into a book can be a rewarding experience. By understanding the publishing industry landscape, preparing your manuscript effectively, and implementing effective marketing strategies, you can increase the chances of your book reaching a wide readership and making a meaningful impact in your field.

We have delved into how to turn your thesis into a book that melds creative storytelling with scholarly acumen. It is a transformative act that extends the reach of your rigorous academic efforts to inform, engage, and inspire a general audience. The endeavor presents an opportunity to refine your ideas, solidify your expertise, and broaden the dialogue within and beyond your field. The thesis-to-book transition requires critical adjustments in writing style, narrative construction, and audience engagement. It demands that complex ideas be distilled without diluting their significance, enabling readers from various backgrounds to glean insights and appreciate the depths of your research. At once a scholarly and creative pursuit, reshaping a thesis into a book offers academics a wider platform for influence. It allows a work that might otherwise remain within the confines of academic circles to educate, affect public discourse, and potentially guide policy and practice. Upon successful publication, seeing your work in book form is not simply an act of personal accomplishment but a contribution to the collective repository of knowledge that charts new paths for understanding and innovation. Whether navigating traditional publishing avenues or embracing the autonomy of self-publishing, the meticulous effort to produce and promote a book is an adventure with unique challenges and rewards. The act of persevering through these stages is a testament to the importance you place on the dissemination of knowledge. Ultimately, transitioning your thesis into a book is more than a mere reformatting of academic work; it is a sharing of passion, a conversation extended to curious minds, and a beacon for those seeking to delve into your study’s essence.

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How to Turn your Dissertation into a Book

You finished your dissertation and want to turn it into a book? Then don’t let the revision process scare you – we've got you covered with helpful tips and tricks on the way.

This post is part of a series, which serves to provide hands-on information and resources for authors and editors.

After years of hard work on their dissertation, more than a few Early Career Researchers consider turning their PhD research into a monograph. While this is great to reach a whole new audience, the process of getting there can seem complex and daunting at first.

But we’re here to help!

The first and most essential step is to decide whether your dissertation should become a book at all. For many scholars this is a no-brainer, especially in the humanities and the social sciences, where the publication of books is crucial for getting professional recognition, climbing up the career ladder, and eventually gaining tenure.

Your dissertation could also be published in the form of one or several journal articles. Or something you just want to upload on a university server and be done with.

However, let’s say that you do want to convert your thesis into a publishable book, here are the general steps of this exciting undertaking:

• Find your match
• Build your confidence
• Get down to the nitty gritty
• Pitch your work
• Respond and revise

1. Find Your Match

The process of revising a dissertation goes hand-in-hand with the search for the right publishing house. The question what kind of book you want or need will influence your choice. Vice versa, the publisher shapes what kind of book you will be rewarded with.

Publishing with an established publisher is still considered as a sign of quality. They take care of things like quality control and peer review, and they select their titles carefully, so they fit their lists. This also means the books will sell better. Moreover, and most importantly: a publisher makes your work visible, be it online, in catalogues, on conferences, book fairs, or by distributing your book among libraries and universities.

Are you looking for the right press to publish your academic work? Find out here whether De Gruyter might be the right partner for your project!

Ask yourself this: Where do you want to see your book? Where have your favorite publications been published? Browse bookshelves, and visit book exhibitions at conferences . Talk to editors, approach them, ask for their conditions; check websites.

But whilst you do all of that: Please never submit to more than one publisher at the same time. Wasting editors’ time is frowned upon and doesn’t bode well for future publication with the house.

2. Build your Confidence

Once you decided on which press would be a good choice (from university presses, independent academic publishers, trade publishers etc.), there are a couple of things you need to take into consideration.

First and maybe most importantly: Be kind to yourself. Acknowledge what you have already accomplished. This has been a huge effort, and you have earned every right to be proud of yourself! Then, get to work.

Be prepared to invest time and nerves into reworking your dissertation. Focus on what you have already done, and build from there.

Remember, a book is not a dissertation. You do not need to convince anyone anymore that you are the expert and that you have done your reading. The reader of your book trusts that you are, and that is why they bought it.

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3. Get Down to the Nitty Gritty

• Envision your audience. This will help you give your dissertation a makeover.
• Your viva was probably a while ago, so lots of new and interesting research has been published since then that could potentially influence your work. Do the reading.
• Go over your literature review and see what is not needed anymore for your argument. Do not quote other people as much – the reader wants to know what you think. The reader of your book is also not hugely interested in all of the methodologies out there. Tell them what you used and why, but cut everything else.
• Tell the reader in the introduction what the book’s central argument is. What is your contribution to the field? What’s new? In the conclusion, tell them what the consequences are. What difference do your findings make? How do they help the field?
• Try to stay close to the 100,000 word threshold (=300 pages), including notes. Keep the manuscript sleek, limit the apparatus. Try to have chapters of equal lengths.
• Sure enough, images are nice and often help the reader get a sense for the text, but do not forget that you have to clear rights for most of them, and get all the technicalities for print sorted.
• Use simple wording. Be on point. Always remember your audience needs to understand you, and not all of them are experts.
• Go easy on the footnotes: Resist making them a container for all of the brilliant thoughts that don’t quite fit in the flow or argument of your book. If a remark doesn’t belong in your text, it might not belong in your book altogether.

Bear in mind: With a dissertation, you have something to prove. With a book, you have something to say.

4. Pitch Your Work

After revising, you need to prepare a pitch: Sell your book! Let the publisher know why your research is important and how it changes the field. What’s the unique selling point of your book, what sets it apart from others?

To get started, check the publisher’s website. Usually there is a proposal form hidden away somewhere. Try to find information on the submission process and/or a personal contact. Follow the guidelines, and write an e-mail to the responsible Acquisitions Editor.

Indicate that you are familiar with the scope of the publisher’s list. Maybe you know of a book series of theirs, where your work might fit in. Let them know you did your homework, and that you are invested. Describe how your book complements other titles in the series and why it would be a great fit.

Learn more about book proposals in our blog post “How to Write an Academic Book Proposal: 6 Questions for Laura Portwood-Stacer” .

Be concise. Your proposal should demonstrate not only that you are an expert on the topic, but that you can condense and synthesize what you know, that you can share it concisely, and that you can present your research in a way that is stimulating and thought-provoking.

Usually, the more material you send, the better. Being able to read a sample chapter of the dissertation, in addition to the proposal, makes it much easier for the publisher to get a sense about the writing style of an author, who is still unknown to them.

5. Almost There! Respond and Revise

After you submitted, and heard back from the editor of the press, you can relax a little. Your manuscript is now either under consideration with the editor or already sent out for external peer review. This might take a while.

Chances are, when you hear back from the editor the next time, the reviewers will have criticized parts of your manuscript and are asking for improvements. Hence, you will need to get back into the text once again. This can be a hard moment, but remember: you are so close now! Revise one last time and at the end of the road, you might already see the light of your shiny new author contract.

Good luck – you got this!

If you are interested, check out this related blog post

[Title image by hanna grace via Unsplash]

Rabea Rittgerodt

Rabea works as Acquisitions Editor at De Gruyter. She is specialized on 19th & 20th century social, cultural, and global history. You can follow her on Twitter via @RabeaRi .

Sophie Wagenhofer

Sophie Wagenhofer works as Senior Acquisitions Editor Islamic & Jewish Studies at De Gruyter.

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Research Guides

Submit and publish your thesis.

• The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
• Thesis Defences
• Deadlines and Fees
• Formatting in MS Word
• Formatting in LaTeX
• Making Thesis Accessible
• Thesis Embargo
• Review and Release
• Your Rights as an Author
• Re-using Third Party Materials
• Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Turning Thesis into an Article
• Turning Thesis into a Book
• Other Venues of Publication

Turning Your Thesis into a Book

“A dissertation is a report, a book tells a story”

Turning a thesis into a book means more than simply printing and binding your thesis as is. Neither will it be a quick touch up or superficial revision. Your book manuscript will likely mean a substantial rewrite of your thesis. Consider the following aspects that will need to change:

Your audience

The audience for the thesis is mainly your committee whereas for a book it may be fellow researchers, professionals working in the field, policy makers, educators, or the general audience. The majority of your readers will be less familiar with your topic than was your supervisor and will be more interested in the bigger picture than in the methodological details.

A book has a different purpose from a thesis. A thesis is meant to demonstrate your mastery of the subject and research process. A book is an opportunity to discuss the implications of your research to the larger community. The way you define an audience for your book will directly affect its goal and vice versa.

The structure of your thesis

A book’s structure will be different from that of a thesis. You will need to thoroughly re-order your work into chapters. In particular, the Literature Review and Methodology sections would be shortened drastically or incorporated into the introduction. Copious footnotes typical for a thesis could be transformed into stories.

The voice you use for a book is different from the academic voice in your thesis. You will want to edit out the academic jargon, complex sentences, lengthy paragraphs and passive voice. Be ready to show your own voice and clearly say what you think.

When looking to publish a book you would normally follow these steps:

Select a press

Start by selecting a press that would be a good fit for your topic and audience:

• Look at your own bookshelf - where have authors published on similar topics?
• Check presses’ lists in your subject area
• Consider academic vs commercial publishers
• Get in touch with acquisition editors at the presses you are looking at to check if your idea will be of interest

Prepare your book proposal

• Think of your proposal as a pitch that communicates the book’s value in terms of content and your value as the subject matter expert
• Problems or pain points that the book addresses
• How the book addresses these pain points and what value it provides to the reader
• A proposed title
• Market research evidence that there is a need and niche for the book
• Contents page
• A proposal can be submitted to more than one press. Once you get a book deal, commit to that press and discontinue negotiations with other presses.

Negotiate and sign the contract

• The Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts from the Authors Alliance is a great resource for all questions related to book contracts.

Other tips from book publishers

• Having an article published from your thesis may be a good starting point to get a book deal. However having too many chapters published may be a turn off for a press that looks for original content.
• Consider the timing of publication for your academic career. It takes a while for a book to be written, published, distributed and read. If you would like to proceed with an academic career upon graduation and have reviews of your published book ready for inclusion in your tenure portfolio, you will want to start looking into publishing as soon as possible.

Additional resources on converting your thesis into a book:

• Harman, E. (2003). The thesis and the book: A guide for first-time academic authors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press ( Print | Electronic )
• "Working on a book project? What I wish I knew…" - recording of the April 2021 webinar and presenters' book proposals
• Writers’ How To Series by the Writers’ Union of Canada
• See writing guides for creative non-fiction
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• Next: Other Venues of Publication >>
• Last Updated: Sep 15, 2023 3:23 PM
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Turning Your Dissertation into a Book

Interested in publishing your dissertation as a book? You will likely need to revise it extensively so it will appeal to a wider audience and compete in the literary marketplace. Here are some guidelines to help you in this process.

• Allow plenty of time!
• The review process can easily take up to a year, as it entails a peer review of your manuscript, potential revisions, further peer review and then approval.
• The editing process can easily take a year to a year and a half as it entails copyediting, design, typesetting and proofreading, preparation of the index, printing and binding.

Dissertations differ from books in several ways

• Dissertations are highly specialized, while books are geared to general readers.
• Dissertation audiences are usually fewer than 100 readers — books are about 500 or more, in general.
• In a dissertation, the author’s authority must be proven; in books, it is assumed.
• Dissertations contain extensive documentation (to prove authority), while books document to credit sources and help the reader.
• Dissertations can run long; books are often far shorter.

Elements that make a good book

• A concise, memorable and intriguing title that includes essential key words
• Clear and effective organization
• A succinct introduction
• Illustrations that enhance the text
• Sections that are meaningful either alone or as part of the total book
• Navigational aids, such as chapter titles, running heads, subheads, notes, bibliography, index
• A voice (relationship of author to reader) that functions like an invisible tour guide or creative storyteller, and avoids sounding like a lecturer at a podium

The revision process

• Forget your dissertation. Forget your committee.
• Clarify your modified topic and audience.
• Determine how to present it in a dynamic way.
• Remove unnecessary references to yourself.
• Delete conspicuous chapter intros and summaries.
• Make style parallel in chapter titles, captions, chapter openings and closings, subheads.
• Revisit the introduction and conclusion.
• Remove unnecessary notes; condense or combine others.
• Eliminate most cross-references.
• Cut unnecessary examples and data.
• Make chapter openings strong, clear, and inviting.
• Add definitions of jargon, foreign terms, biographical and historical dates.
• Brainstorm several possible titles and subtitles.
• Tighten prose.
• Use active verbs.
• Begin and end sentences with words you want to emphasize.

The Chicago Manual of Style . 15th ed. (2003). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

German, William. (2005).  From dissertation to book . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Harmon, Eleanor, et al., ed. (2003).  The thesis and the book: A guide for first-time academic authors. 2nd ed . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Lucy, Beth, ed. (2004).  Revising your dissertation: Advice from leading editors . Berkeley: University of California Press.

by Lorri Hagman, executive editor, University of Washington Press

9 Effective Tips for Publishing Thesis As a Book

While they may look alike, a thesis is not a book! The process of publishing thesis as a book is different right from its conception to completion. Created with an intent to target a specific audience, a thesis differs from a book in multiple aspects. Although your thesis topic would surely be relevant to your field of study, it perhaps, can be of interest to a wider audience. In such a case, your thesis can be turned into a book .

In this article, we will shed some light on the possible ways of publishing your thesis as a book .

Table of Contents

What is the Difference Between a Thesis and a Book?

Researchers spend years working on their thesis. A thesis focuses on the research conducted, and is thus published as journal articles . However, in some cases, it may also be published as a book for a wider readership. While both thesis and book writing require effort, time, and are equally longer versions of documents, they are different in several ways.

• A thesis always begins with a question or hypothesis. On the other hand, a book begins with a series of reflections to grab the reader’s attention. To a certain extent, it could be said that while the thesis starts with a question, the book starts with an answer.
• Another major difference between the two is their audience. The content of a thesis, as well as its format and language is aimed at the academic community. However, since the book is written with an intent to reach out to wider audience, the language and format is simpler for easy comprehension by non-academic readers as well.
• Furthermore, thesis is about documenting or reporting your research activities during doctorate; whereas, a book can be considered as a narrative medium to capture the reader’s attention toward your research and its impact on the society.

How to Turn a Thesis into a Book?

The structure of your thesis will not necessarily be similar to the structure of your book. This is primarily because the readership is different and the approach depends on both the audience as well as the purpose of your book. If the book is intended as a primary reference for a course, take the course syllabus into account to establish the topics to be covered. Perhaps your thesis already covers most of the topics, but you will have to fill in the gaps with existing literature.

Additionally, it may be so that you want your book to be a complementary reference not only for one course, but for several courses with different focuses; in this case, you must consider different interests of your audience.

The layout of most thesis involve cross-references, footnotes, and an extensive final bibliography. While publishing your thesis as a book , eliminate excessive academic jargon and reduce the bibliography to reference books for an ordinary reader.

Key Factors to Consider While Publishing Your Thesis as a Book

• Purpose of the book and the problems it intends to solve
• A proposed title
• The need for your proposed book
• Existing and potential competition
• Index of contents
• Overview of the book
• Summary of each book chapter
• Timeline for completing the book
• Brief description of the audience and the courses it would cover

With all of this in mind, here are 9 steps to successfully turn your thesis into a book .

9 Steps to Successfully Publish Your Thesis as a Book!

1. Establish Your Target Audience

Based on the topic of your thesis, determine the areas that may potentially rise interest in your book’s audience. Once you establish your target audience, figure out the nature of book they would like to read.

2. Determine the Objective of Your Book

Reflect on the scope of your book and the impact it would have on your target audience. Perhaps it can be used as a textbook or supplementary for one or more courses. Visualize what the reach of your book may be; if it is a book with an identified local market, an interest that arose in your educational institution, which can be traced to other similar institutions, or if it can have a national or even international reach.

3. Identify Your Competition

Find out which books are already on the market, what topics they cover, what problems do they solve, etc. Furthermore, ask yourself what would be the advantage of your book over those that already exist.

4. Define the Structure of Your Book

If the book is written as part of a curriculum, use that program to define its structure. If it covers several programs, make a list of topics to focus on individually and sequence them in an order based on educational criteria or interest for the potential reader.

5. Identify Potential Publishers

Search for publishers in your country or on the web and the kind of books they publish to see if there is a growing interest in the book you are planning to develop. Furthermore, you can also look at self-publishing or publishing-on-demand options if you already have a captive audience interested in your work.

6. Plan a Schedule

Based on the structure of your book, schedule your progress and create a work plan. Consider that many topics are already written in your thesis, you will only have to rewrite them and not have to do the research from scratch. Plan your day in such a way that you get enough time to fill in technical or generic gaps if they exist.

7. Follow a Writing Style

The writing style depends on the type of book and your target audience. While academic writing style is preferred in thesis writing, books can be written in simpler ways for easy comprehension. If you have already spoken to an interested publisher, they can help in determining the writing style to follow. If you’re self-publishing, refer to some competitor books to determine the most popular style of writing and follow it.

8. Incorporate Visual Aids

Depending on the subject of your book, there may be various types of visual and graphic aids to accentuate your writing, which may prove lucrative. Give due credit to images, diagrams, graphical representations, etc. to avoid copyright infringement. Furthermore, ensure that the presentation style of visual aids is same throughout the book.

9. Review Your Draft

Your supervisor and the advisory council review and refine you thesis draft. However, a book must be proofread , preferably by someone with a constructive view. You can also use professional editing services or just go ahead with an excellent grammar checking tool to avoid the hassle.

Do you plan on publishing your thesis as a book ? Have you published one before? Share your experience in the comments!

good article

Hello. Nice to read your paper. However, I fell on your article while browsing the net for the exact opposite reason and I think you can equally give me some insights. I am interested, as I earlier said, on how to transform my book into a thesis instead, and how I can defend it at an academic level. I am writing a research work on financial digital options trading and have done a lot of back testing with technical analysis that I explain, to rake thousands of dollars from the financial markets. I find the technical analysis very peculiar and would like to defend this piece of work as a thesis instead. Is it possible? Please you can reply me through e:mail thanks

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Scholarly Publishing

• Introduction
• Choosing Publishers - Considerations and risks
• Thesis to book?
• Vanity Publishers
• Presenting and publishing at conferences
• When choosing a journal
• Journals selection/ evaluation
• Open Research guide
• UOM Researcher publishing support
• Author Profiles

My thesis to a book?

• Quite frequently early career researchers are approached to consider publishing a thesis as a book. If you intend to publish your thesis in this way considerable editing and reformatting will be required first.
• Often examiners’ reports suggest publishing options.
• Books published by print-on-demand and vanity publishers may often not be eligible for categorising as an A1 (authored) book for internal institutional auditing purposes.
• If you are approached by a publisher please refer to our  What if you are approached by a publisher? Consider asking some of these questions  section.
• Also consider contacting the  faculty or liaison librarian  for your discipline to explore options and considerations further.

Is re-purposing of text acceptable?

Israel, M. (2018, January 20). Self-plagiarism? When re-purposing text may be ethically justifiable. Research Ethics Monthly . https://ahrecs.com/research-integrity/self-plagiarism-when-re-purposing-text-may-be-ethically-justifiable

Mark writes up some tips for those considering re-using text that they have previously published.

Roig, M. (2016). Recycling our own work in the digital age. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 655–669). Springer.

Miguel helps to define self-plagiarism within science and scholarship and review its common forms - duplicate publication, augmented publication (when a dataset is republished with additional observations), salami publication (creating two or more publications from the same study), and text recycling (re-using substantial parts of your own previously published publications). He discusses the reader-writer contract and some scenarios of re-use in books (e.g., new editions, re-using portions of chapters from one book to another, from journal articles to book), , conference presentations (e.g., presented at more than one conference, conference presentation to journal article) and doctoral dissertations and theses (e.g., dissertation/thesis to publication, publications to dissertation). He explains why authors should be concerned about re-using previously published work.

Vanity publishers

Vanity publishers are publishing houses which charge authors to have their works published without the selection criteria usually used in hybrid publishing models.  Protect your future academic credibility and ensure maximum prospects for future publishing of your work in credible journals by carefully evaluating the credibility of these publishers BEFORE accepting any offers. Refer to our Choosing publishers section in this guide.

Torres, M.R. (2012, June 24). Advice: Dissertation for sale: A cautionary tale [Blog post].  Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Dissertation-for-Sale-A/132401/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

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How to turn your thesis into a book

• May 17, 2023
• United Nations Institute for Training and Research
• Experiences , Motivational , Publishing , Thesis and Dissertation

Two years and two months. That’s how long it took to turn my PhD thesis into a book. Let me talk about the two – year journey it took to turn the dissertation into a book, including the rejections and edits to get to this stage.  

I was awarded my PhD on the Arab Spring in 2020. I used some time to visit Saudi Arabia and published an article drawing on my thesis. By the time I returned, COVID-19 had started in the UK and Boris Johnson announced lockdown. The priority thus became mental health for me and for many of my friends, family and colleagues. I thus focused on my new job as lecturer at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) before approaching university presses.

I had made a list of certain presses and while most replied with praise of my manuscript, I was also told that the market on the Arab Spring was saturated. I then turned to another press where I’d had more contact. This press was positive to adding my manuscript on the Arab Spring to their series. The editor seemed very enthusiastic. After sending in the proposal I waited for some months. After contacting the editor and receiving no response I decided to move on. COVID-19 has affected workload for so many editors and I do not blame the editor for lack of contact but a decision had to be made. I approached another academic publisher. What happened next would be of huge help to the final book.

The new publisher decided not to go ahead with publication. However, the manuscript still went through peer review. Under advice from a colleague, I requested the comments. The next month was spent rewriting and restructuring the manuscript in response to very useful feedback. It was also such feedback that encouraged me to keep trying and to insert personal growth stories from Jordan and Saudi Arabia (including being arrested).

After sharing my proposal with a colleague, I contacted Palgrave Macmillan . This time, it was a strong yes and I was rewarded with a book contract.

The process of turning the thesis into the book from Palgrave.

Because I had received extensive feedback from other publishers’ peer review, there was little editing required to meet Palgrave’s requests. The peer reviewer from Palgrave had mentioned changes that by then I had already made, including   removing the theory and method chapter and merging them with other chapters and   removing a suggested addendum. Originally, I had considered including the article on my time in Saudi Arabia during COVID as an extra item but the reviewer felt that it may affect the overall holistic feel of the book and its coherence.  

These above changes were the main edits needed that had already been done. Once I submitted the changed manuscript to Palgrave, I received a contract to sign electronically and was assigned a wonderful editor, Supraja Ganesh. From there, I was tasked with creating an index for the book, which would contain all significant elements the book covered so that researchers could easily find required information for their own research. The creation of an index is often an author’s responsibility and can take time, but once major edits are made there is less of a rush to complete it. With the final manuscript delivered, I then provided a 300-word blurb and began to secure endorsements for the book. Often, reviewers who have enjoyed the book may be willing to write a short sentence of critical praise that will appear on the front page of the book but also be used for marketing on the book webpage, Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and anywhere else the book is sold. I quickly secured endorsements from various established scholars across the US and the UK as I had repeated contact with them through previous publications and activities during my time in the Middle East or during my PhD.  

Finally, from signing the contract to the release of the book it took four months, with a launch date of September 2022. I was thrilled to hold a physical copy of the book sent to me by October 2022. Publishing what was actually my second book (the first was based on my MA thesis regarding private military companies) was certainly an accomplishment and allowed me to revisit my PhD at a time when I was lecturing on the same theoretical concepts for my work with the United Nations. It also helps as a media commentator to keep publishing on events in my field. Not only is my work mentioned during my TV appearances but each book becomes its own platform for promotion of what I love: research and political analysis.

To summarise:  • Time to do the PhD and write the thesis: 3 years.   • Time to start a PhD and be awarded: 4 years.   • Time from being awarded a PhD, being told by contacts that the thesis should be a book and getting a book contract: 2 years and 2 months.   • Time from signing the contract to the book’s release: 4 months.  

Build your network while doing your research so you can market your book. The point is this, to all PhD students: you can do it.  

Nicolai Due-Gundersen

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Turning Your Thesis Into A Book

Tips and tricks to rewrite for a different type of reader, from Teresa Pitt, a legendary former Senior Commissioning Editor and Publisher with MUP.

MUP occasionally publishes books that have begun their lives as theses and academic research projects.

Some recent examples include Susan Carland's Fighting Hislam, Glenn Morrison's Songlines and Faultlines and Rebe Taylor's Into the Heart of Tasmania .

But rewriting a thesis is not simply a matter of making revisions to existing text. Here are some tips and tricks to help turn your thesis into a book (or perhaps a manuscript you can submit to publishers –  including us ).

An original thesis should be regarded as the basis for an entirely new work, written with a new audience in mind. This new work will address intelligent general readers who seek to be provoked, engaged, intrigued and/or seduced into reading your book. General readers do not expect you to prove to them how thorough your research has been, or how many other texts you have consulted. They simply want to know what you have found out and what you think about it.

The most important tasks in rewriting a thesis are to:

Remove all academic scaffolding

In a thesis, the examiners expect you to explain what you are setting out to do, and how you are going to go about doing it, before you actually do it. Then, after you have done it, you are required to restate or summarise your methods, findings and conclusions.

In a book, these preliminaries and wrap-ups are superfluous. They get in the reader's way, become repetitive and obscure the impact of the real subject matter. They also take up valuable space. The Abstract and Introduction that are both essential in a thesis are not needed in a book. Neither are the usual chapter Introductions and Conclusions.

Ordinary readers want you to get straight to the point. Thus, anything that sounds like "In this chapter I will argue . . ." or "In this chapter I have shown . . ." should be deleted immediately.

Reorganise the material

When writing for the general reader, you should introduce the most arresting, intriguing, or unusual aspects of the work the heart of the matter immediately.

The background information and theoretical discussions should come later. As a rule of thumb, start from the particular, and work to the general, rather than the other way around. In journalism, the rule for any story is always to "grab the reader's attention" in the first paragraph – indeed, in the first sentence. It may seem strange to compare a serious academic work with a newspaper story or article, but in fact the best serious non-fiction writers follow a similar principle.

The most interesting, arresting or unusual parts of the story or argument should come first to attract the interest of the general reader, you can go back later to provide the necessary background and interpretation.

Refocus clearly on the heart of the story

You need to "pick the eyes" out of your thesis. That is, you must decide what the most interesting or important issues or themes are, and concentrate on these, ruthlessly discarding the more peripheral material. Background material for example, surveys of previous literature, historical background, discussions of earlier and current theories, arguments, methodology, etc. if retained at all, should be moved from the beginning to the ends of the book, or incorporated in a much-condensed form into the relevant sections of the main text.

Remember you are writing now for non-specialist readers. You must be aware both of what you want to tell them and of what is going to catch and retain their attention.

Reduce the scholarly apparatus

Most theses have a enormous number of footnotes and an exhaustive bibliography, all designed to impress your examiners with the breadth and depth of your research. Having successfully impressed them, you now need to cut or condense your notes ruthlessly, and to reduce your bibliography to a reasonable size. Keep only what will be genuinely useful to an ordinary reader.

Any discursive or explanatory notes should either be incorporated back into the text or deleted altogether. Notes should be restricted to sources only, and should be turned into endnotes rather than footnotes.

Rewriting and new writing will be necessary. Having sketched out a new structure and focus, you now have to start writing all over again to create a completely new work.

As you rewrite you must move firmly away from the usual impersonal, abstract academic style. This means hunting down and expunging instances of:· academic jargon (find a way of expressing the concept in plain English, especially the first time you introduce it):

• long, complex, convoluted sentences (no sentence should contain more than two ideas, which should be expressed as directly as possible)
• inordinately lengthy paragraphs (break your paragraphs up as much as possible and vary them between, say, three and twenty lines)
• abstract nouns (use concrete nouns wherever you can) the passive voice (don't say "Similar observations were made by Johnson and Smith"; say "Johnson and Smith made similar observations")
• the third person used for yourself (don't say "In the present writer's opinion"; say "I think").

You must learn to address your writing as directly as possible to an imagined non-specialist reader, using a natural, personal, and unpretentious voice and using plain English. Audience awareness the sense of a real, actual person to whom you are talking/writing is one of the most useful communication skills you can develop.

Try to imagine, as you write, that you are talking about your work to an intelligent, educated friend over the kitchen table or in the pub. Your friend is in another field altogether and knows little or nothing about your particular speciality, but is curious to know more about what you do. You would talk to this friend in quite a different way than you would write for your examiners. It is this friendly, straightforward, conversational style that you need to develop.

A number of academics who have become successful writers for a general audience have gained great benefit from joining a writing class in order to develop their writing skills, to enhance their audience awareness, and to unlearn the unfortunate writing habits instilled during their academic training. Courses in creative writing and non-fiction writing are widely available, and we recommend you give this option serious consideration.

Kevin Brophy's Explorations in Creative Writing would be an excellent place to start.

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Getting your thesis published

Wondering how to go about getting your thesis published? In this guide Georgina Collins provides information for early career researchers on the process of converting your thesis into a published book.

From PhD to publication

Following the PhD, if you wish to remain in academia or move into a related profession, publishing your thesis is often considered essential. Few PhD theses are published in their original form; the PhD is an academic exercise aimed at gaining a qualification and a set of skills, whereas a book is intended to be read by others. Converting your thesis into a book can be used as a building block to an academic career, to influence your discipline and expand your knowledge of the field.

One practical way in which the academic exercise and publication process differ is over copyright. Your thesis may contain content which is copyrighted to others that you will need permission from rights owners to include in publication.

Adapting a thesis

When adapting your thesis for publication you should take into account the shift in audience: as a thesis your work had a very small readership, but when published it should attract a much larger one. How will you go about amending your thesis to achieve this?

You will also need to consider whether to publish your thesis as a monograph or series of articles. Bear in mind the advice you have been given by supervisors and examiners.

Consider how these decisions may affect your employability. Sometimes three or four strong papers in refereed journals can be better when applying for jobs than having to wait several years for a monograph to come out.

You should also consider how you will balance your publication commitments alongside the inevitable post-doctoral challenges of finding a job, teaching, and pursuing new areas of research.

Choosing a publisher

There are different types of publishers – university presses and commercial presses are the most common ones. Some will pay you, while others that will expect a publishing subsidy from you. It is important to get a good sense of the range of publishers in your field, the kinds of work they publish, and their different strengths. Consider how your work could enhance their current series.

You may also consider how you wish to pitch your book – at a general readership, a trade audience or a specialist academic audience. Whether your thesis is published or not is usually decided by the commissioning editor or editorial board. That decision will be made on the grounds of intellectual coherence, whether the research is cutting edge, and also if the book is commercially viable.

Writing a book proposal

A major step in the process of publishing your thesis is getting the book proposal right. Make sure you read publishers’ guidelines. Catch their eye by being brief and punchy. Carefully proofread your work and do not just cut and paste an abstract from your thesis. There are four key criteria to consider:

• Rigour – is it a scholarly piece of work?
• Significance – is it talking to a wide audience?
• Originality – are you doing something brand new?
• Marketability – is the book commercially viable?

Your goal is to convince them that your book will be essential reading in your field.

Rewards, royalties and subsidies

In the UK, research is judged by the Research Excellence Framework (REF)  which is based on peer review. Therefore, whether you are paid or have paid to be published should not make a difference to how your work is viewed: it is the opinion of your peers that will matter.

Most of the big presses do not charge and have very well-established peer review systems of their own – so on the whole, work published by these large publishers tends to be of a higher standard. The ultimate prize is a contract with royalties, but unless your first book is a trade book that will have a huge impact, do not expect much. Also bear in mind whether your publisher is tying you in for your next book – this could be either a good or bad thing.

If you are required to pay a publishing subsidy, find out who is expected to pay. Many university departments will only pay if the book is likely to form part of an REF submission, which means it will have to reach a certain quality threshold – three-star or four-star in REF terms.

With these smaller publishers, you may have to do much of the quality control, proofing and marketing yourself. If this is the case, you may choose instead to go for articles – but on the other hand, sometime these publishers can provide you with a quick turnaround which will allow you to move on to the next book or project.

The challenges of PhD publication

Don’t leave it too long to publish your thesis. PhDs are perishable and the literature review and methodological foundations will often be out of date after five or six years.

This article is based on a paper given by Professor Charles Forsdick, Series Editor at Liverpool University Press. Listen to his paper in full here .   (podcast of event: Publishing Your Thesis in the Humanities and Social Sciences)

Click here for a guide to publishing for first-timers.

Image: Alex Proimos, Wikicommons

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15 thoughts on “ getting your thesis published ”.

• Pingback: Approaching a publisher | PhD Life

I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come acroas a blog that’s both equally educative and amusing, and without a doubt, you’ve hit the nail on thhe head. The issue is something which not enough folks are speaking intelligently about. Now i’m very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.

I want to publish my thesis but its been 5yrs now

Depending on the field that you were researching and the intended output format, I guess you would have to check whether something similar has already been published. If not, I cannot see why, following updates in literature and other parts where needed, you would not be able to write a proposal, either for a monograph, a chapter in an edited volume or something else. 🙂

Good luck! Ana

This is Really Nice Post & Appreciating for reading this piece of blog.

Does anyone publish a PhD on line?

Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure are you referring to publishing the actual thesis or a monograph/papers based on it? I think quite a few people do the former, for example in the UK most PhD students are obliged to leave their thesis with university’s repository (I believe you can choose the period of time after which you’d like to make it available to the public). Some are available in larger repositories, like http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do , and in some cases the funding body might have special regulations regarding this.

In terms of reworking your thesis into a monograph, I suppose you could do it online (publishing or self-publishing), but do consider the impact you are trying to achieve.

All the best, Ana, PhD Life

I was thinking of a web site on which the whole PhD was published as approved by the University with search tags to find content

I want to publish my Ph D thesis in form of book

I want to publish my thesis into book

I want to publish my thesis on ‘Investigation of Bio mass Stirling Engine’ into book

How can i publish my MS thesis online, can you help me with it?

Hi, publishing a thesis is a very individual process and it’s hard to give specific advice for your question. I’d highly recommend speaking to your supervisor and other academics in your faculty as a starting point. Best of luck! -Jessica

• Pingback: Como publicar sua tese? – Biblioteca Prof. Lydio Machado Bandeira de Mello – Faculdade de Direito da UFMG
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Publishing Simplified

How to Publish a Ph.D. Thesis as a Book?

Now your doctoral thesis can be published online as a book, in high-quality paperback, eBook, or hardcover, with worldwide distribution via one of the leading international  book publishing companies.   This blog discusses the  steps to self-publishing a book  for your Ph.D. thesis. 

Completing a Ph.D. thesis takes years and years of research, hard work, and sleepless nights. The research conducted as part of a Ph.D. is valuable. Its value doubles when decision-makers qualify the researched work for Ph.D. gradation. 

Which makes a Ph.D. dissertation a valuable academic textbook to a broader set of audiences, including teachers, scholars, and students. So, if you want to know whether you can publish your doctoral thesis as a book? The answer is yes. And what’s more? There is a wide range of options for publishing Ph.D. research. And quite a few of them are affordable and profitable. 

Ways to Publish a Ph.D. Thesis 

Today the scope of publishing has grown. With free self-publishing and online book publishing options, there are a ton of resources and tools available that you can use to get your researched thesis out into the hands of millions of interested people. 

Convert and Publish Your Entire Thesis into a Book:  If your thesis includes a topic that interests a large audience of students and professionals, answers questions, and communicates its importance, including evolution, impact, and probable solution, you can publish your entire thesis as a book.

Use Parts of the Ph.D. Dissertation in a Book:  You can include parts of your collaborative, ongoing, or past research studies in your book (written or co-authored by you). 

Use an Element of the Ph.D. Thesis in an Edited Book:  If a book with a subject that fits with your research theme is being edited or upgraded with new content, you can collaborate with the writer, share your studies, and contribute your expertise with other contributors. 

Rewrite Your Ph.D. Thesis into a Book Before Publishing

A thesis is not a book – its language, content, style, and format – everything is created for an academic audience and examiners. On the other hand, a book is easily digestible and understandable, created to inform, educate, intrigue, provoke, and engage readers. A thesis starts with a question, but a book begins with an answer. 

Therefore, it is crucial to ensure your Ph.D. dissertation connects with your readers so that they actually read it. Thesis can get boring; examiners do not mind, but readers will. Hence, you will have to rewrite a major chunk of your thesis for non-specialist readers. 

Before publishing, follow the steps below to convert your thesis into a proper book or manuscript. 

• Develop the Plot of the Book Interestingly 

A thesis has sections, sub-sections, strict rules, guidelines, bibliography, references, abstract, literary review, scientific approach, interpretation, result, and conclusion. But a book needs to have a story.

Even with a serious subject, you must create a background story in your introduction, establish context, environment, objective, and strike emotions. You should talk to your audience with examples, quotes, and personal stories and unfold layers slowly. Help readers discover each layer and new things with each chapter instead of revealing everything together. 

• Reorganize the Content Based on Reader’s Psychology 

Write for the general reader – introduce the most unusual aspects of the work immediately. Start from the heart of the matter, then move to theory, and finally to general stuff. The most interesting things should come first, followed by the necessary background and interpretation. Also, change the narrative from third-person to first-person – passive to active and interactive. 

• Remove all Academic References

Remove everything in the thesis that comes in the reader’s way – anything repetitive, obscure, and takes up unnecessary space, including Abstract, Introduction, Summary, Sections, Sub-Sections, Historical Backgrounds, Surveys, Conclusions, Arguments, and other peripheral material. Get straight to the point and delete the rest. 

• Add-Additional Content and Broaden the Scope

Adding multiple layers to the book can keep the reader hooked to your book. Without meandering from the theme, try adding extra content, ideas, and multiple narratives that relate to the main topic so that readers do not wander off in between. 

• Rewrite the Book by Keeping ‘Engagement and Storytelling’ in Mind
• Steer clear from impersonal and abstract tone. Use a friendly, conversational, and straightforward tone. Express more, command less. Impress less, inform more. 
• Use plain English. Introduce scientific concepts and academic jargon in layman’s language with examples. Use a lot of examples and references. 
• For engagement, use historical, cultural, art, literature, and mythological references. 
• Choose different ways to prove your point.
• Sentences should be short, simple, direct, and shouldn’t contain more than two ideas. 
• Paragraphs should be between 3 to 10 lines, and avoid repeating abstracts. Be creative. 
• Use active voice and concrete nouns. (Avoid abstract nouns and passive voice)
• Write in first-person (I think you should learn, etc.)
• Write like talking to an intelligent friend (but with another educational background) in a café or pub. 
• Include human references, case studies, people’s stories, and personal experiences. 
• Add “Bibliography,” not “References,” at the end of the book.
• Most Important Tip

After rewriting your book, wait a week to ten days before editing. Hold yourself back for a few days, clear your mind, think about the target audience, and edit with a fresh perspective. 

How to Publish Your Ph.D. Thesis and Earn Money 

Publishing your Ph.D. dissertation into a full-length book has its own perks – you can start your career as an author, open your doors to academic book writing opportunities, and most importantly, earn a good profit from the book sales. 

Going through Book Publishing Companies 

Approach book publishing companies or a publishing house, write your proposal stating why they should publish your thesis, submit your manuscript for review, and wait for the approval. An editor will read your manuscript to determine whether your book is worth publishing. 

If the publishing company accepts your manuscript and decides to publish your book, they will buy the copyrights from you and pay you an advance against future royalty, based on the current market rate. They will then take care of the book formatting, publishing, ISBN allocation, distribution, and marketing. 

This process generally takes 2 to 18 months. You will be offered 10% to 15% royalty or 5% to 10% of the net sales profits once or twice a year. This process is known as traditional book publishing.

Self-Publishing A Book

Self-publishing is a DIY solution that allows writers to publish their own books without losing creative and copyright control. Choose a leading self-publishing company that offers free publishing options, like Writat, and  create an account . Most self-publishing companies provide mobile-enabled, online publishing solutions. 

Self-publishing is the most profitable, trending, and easiest way to publish a Ph.D. thesis. All you have to do is download a suitable template for your thesis book and copy-paste your manuscript, and convert into a PDF. Choose a suitable cover design from the library or upload any image of your choice, select the book copy option (Paperback, Hardcover, or eBook), and submit your book for processing. 

Once the manuscript is submitted, the self-publishing platform will evaluate the quality (formatting and alignment), approve the cover design, and assign an ISBN. Your book will be published in less than 30 minutes and distributed in 40,000 distribution channels worldwide for greater audience reach. 

Best self-publishing companies offer 70% to 90% of the net profits and other added benefits, like  assisted publishing and customized solutions  (editing, cover designing, and marketing) at a minimal cost.\

Click here  to publish your Ph.D. thesis as a book. 

Read the  Difference Between Writat and Other Book Publishing Companies .

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How do I convert my PhD dissertation so that it can be published as a book?

I have just completed a PhD by research, which I think has some merits in being available as a book (This is, of course, my personal opinion). The research cuts across several fields (e.g. sociology, public policy).

I am wondering what I need to do to take the next step.

In particular:

How do you turn an academic piece like the dissertation (which is written for the examiners) into a book (which is for the general public)?

How do I find publishers who specialise in my field?

• publications

• 11 Have you asked your advisor about this ? Much like "Don't walk. Run", this could serve as a generic answer for so many questions here :) –  Suresh Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 4:38
• 3 What are your goals for publishing. Do you want to make money? Do you want it to count towards tenure? Do you want it to educate the general public? Promote your research? –  StrongBad Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 13:01
• I want to promote my research to (1) make it widely available and (2) to get some kudos for my CV. Unsure how these two goals could be reconciled. –  Javeer Baker Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 23:12
• 3 I mean, a PhD dissertation is written for the examiners (with detailed referencing) but a book to educate the public has a more relaxed and reader-friendly style (i.e. less referencing details etc.). –  Javeer Baker Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 23:21
• @JaveerBaker if you start your comments with an @, like I did here, the person will receive a notification. I would say that books for the public don't have a more relaxed referencing style, they just have less detail that needs to be referenced. –  StrongBad Commented Jan 10, 2013 at 9:22

4 Answers 4

Why do you want the book?

• For prestige?: publishers who contact you, don't do any review and charge high prices will only increase your prestige to those that don't know them (and these are probably not those you want to impress).
• For dissemination?: why not just put the pdf available (as was already recommended)?. Those who are interested will find it, those who are not will probably not buy a PhD thesis
• For money?: I doubt you will really make much out of it.

My recommendation: put it as a pdf on your website / your school's dissertation repository. If you see that lot's of people download it, consider an improved version as book.

• 2 In many disciplines (especially the humanities), it is still obligatory to publish a monograph in order to get a PhD. Although, there is shift to cumulated PhD theses with articles in peer-reviewed journals, sociology, at least in Continental Europe, still values monographs. –  non-numeric_argument Commented Aug 14, 2013 at 9:50
• These questions are very important and I suggest they be considered. In my field, a book published by a shady publisher would only make you look worse as an academic. –  Behacad Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 18:25
• -1 In my field it is very uncommon not to have one's PhD thesis transformed into and published as a book. It is also quite important to have the book published by a highly-regarded publisher. –  henning no longer feeds AI Commented Jun 19, 2015 at 15:25

Your first question is quite tricky (to answer and to do). It depends on what you mean by "the public". A version for academics needs little change from a thesis. For students you need to consider how to highlight what can be learnt from your work. For the general general public, you'll have to start thinking about rewriting perhaps quite a bit, keeping your language accessible and building a narrative. As I am in a different field, perhaps some or all of this is already a part of your thesis.

The second question is simpler, who publishes the books that you read for your thesis?

If your university does not require you to publish your dissertation as a book, I would be very reluctant to invest the time needed to get your dissertation published. I would put the PDF of your dissertation on your own website, making it available to everyone who wants to look at it. I would spend the time needed to rewrite your book on writing more peer reviewed articles. Either by publishing chapters from your dissertation, or by doing new research. I think publications are more important than a book, especially for someone like you who still has only a few publications.

As a partial answer, Springer used to publish (theoretically) outstanding PhD thesis in Mathematics in its 'Lecture notes in Mathematics' as research monograph. However I do not know how many of the published volumes are Phd thesis. Definitely a (math) thesis requires a lot of polishing and rewriting before publishing.

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Publish Your Thesis as a Book with ISBN

As a Ph.D. scholar or academician, you must have spent an inordinate amount of time by your desk trying to come up with your Ph.D. thesis. Now it is important that you publish your hard work to make it available to students studying that area and also people interested in that subject. In fact, your research may have a wider scope. Besides being a matter of immediate interest to your fellows and students, your research can also receive the attention of a broader audience, if you want.

Why Should You Publish Your Thesis as a Book?

• The inclusion of Academic Curriculum: Most successful academic books have their roots in great research work. Broader interest in your research topic may result in the inclusion of a topic in the regular curriculum. When a topic is read widely, it creates more awareness.
• Preserving Knowledge : Ideally, knowledge outlives the researcher and hence, researchers have a solemn responsibility to preserve the fruit of their lifelong endeavour. And this can be done by turning a thesis into a published book.
• Documentation: A piece of research is best preserved and used when it becomes available as a book with ISBN. In such case, it can also be referred by colleagues and junior research fellows pursuing the same field. ISBN is a unique number that helps in the listing and tracking of a published book worldwide.
• Enriches Research Field: Great thinkers have a responsibility for their area of study. Publishing a thesis enriches the specific research area. This also creates an opportunity for the researchers to carry forward their own line of work and in some cases, create a legacy.
• Research as Inspiration: Many scholars publish their work as a vital clue as well as a source of inspiration to the students of the next generation. Say for example: John Dalton’s atomic theory. Most of the things he suggested in his theory were later proved flawed. But, his proposition opened a new avenue in the field of scientific research.
• Research as a Link to the Future: Some researchers come up with concepts that are unrivaled and unprecedented and most importantly beneficial for the society. But, they themselves could not get on the right course. So, it failed. But, if they would have documented their ideas in a book or so and if that eventually got picked up by someone who could put them in the correct line of action, imagine the enormous good that could come out of it.
• Research for Recognition: When researchers find something radical or solve an old problem of humanity, they publish their thesis in order to be recorded in the literature as the exponent of that theory. In this case, publishing a book gives the authors scopes to earn the unique right and overwhelming recognition.

What Are The Benefits?

Having looked at the different motivations to publish a thesis as a book, we can now turn our attention to the more personal benefits publishing offers.

Royalty: The first that easily comes to our mind is royalty. Royalty is a commission, authors get from the sales of their books. This is a recurrent earning and who does not know that there are unpredictable expenses in the research field. For many researchers, this is like an incentive to carry on with their work.

Adds More Values to Research : Another benefit of publishing is, it adds credibility to research work. It may sound weird. But it is true. No one knows or even cares to know what a researcher is doing inside the laboratory or study. But, the moment published books start coming, the editors review and the Press covers authors’ interviews, people start getting serious about it and this way researchers influence a wider network of people. Our culture needs more scientists, researchers, and inventors as our role model for some positive influence.

How Can You Do It?

Ph.D. research is usually published in the form of a journal article. There are a few options to consider when you think of publishing your Ph.D. research.

• Convert the Entire Ph.D. into a Book: You can consider this option if your thesis covers a wide area of interest and concern; proves its relevance to a broad audience and propose a solution or alternative.
• Publish Part of Your Thesis as a Book: This option can be considered if parts of research are ongoing or awaiting results.
• Contribute to an Edited Book: You can contribute your research article to a book that compiles a number of essays on a similar topic. A well-edited book offers different perspectives of particular research and thus broadens the scope of PhD-based research via collaboration.

To conclude, you can simply publish your dissertation. But converting it into a book will be a rewarding process. Go slowly with it but start positively and work on it regularly. When you are done, get in touch with the book publishing companies to turn your thesis into a book. After all, a valuable thesis is worth all the attention.

For any kind of further query for your thesis publication email us at [email protected]

80 thoughts on “ Publish Your Thesis as a Book with ISBN ”

Dear Sir/Madam, Hope I meet you well. Just read about the opportunity you have for academicians, as I am one of the them, and would like to publish my M.Phil and Ph.D Theses. I’m an Adult Educator with specialisation in Adult Learning and Education, Community Development, Entrepreneurship and Distance Education. I’m a lecturer and Coordinator of Accra Learning Centre, School of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana, Legon. Will get back to you for the details concerning the entire process of publication. Counting on your kind cooperation. Dr. Isaac Kofi Biney Lecturer/Coordinator- Accra Learning Centre SCDE, College of Education University of Ghana Legon.

Thanks for showing interest in publishing with us.You will soon receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

Thanks for taking time to read our blog. Please write to us at [email protected] if you have a thesis to publish.

Dear Sir/Ma I have completed my Ph.D work but the work is unpublished but some part of the work was developed as journals and it was published both local and internationally. Now having seen the information in your site i decided to contact you. How much will it take me to publish my researched work with you people? If the book is published and it was demanded by some body and the person paid for the book what percentage will i get?

Thanks for showing interest in publishing with us. You will soon receive a formal communication from our side and we will get into a discussion about royalty benefit, copyright and other things in detail.

Are you provide any guidance for converting the phD thesis into book or any format?

Thanks for showing interest in publishing with us. We offer publication guidance. You will soon receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

I need clear information about how to publish my dissertation

Thanks for showing interest in publishing with us.You will soon receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail. You can also write to us directly at [email protected]

DO YOU ALSO PUBLISH? IF GIVEN A THESIS CAN YOU PUBLISH?

Thanks for taking time to read our blog. Yes, we will publish your thesis. Please send your complete thesis to us at [email protected] . You will also receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

What are the conditions for publication? Is it free? Will the publications be in refereed journals?

Thanks for taking time to read our blog. Please send your complete thesis to us at [email protected] . Our packages start from $149. If you want to publish your research paper in a refereed journal, I will forward your interest to our journal division. You can also consider publishing your thesis as a book with ISBN as discussed above. You will also receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

Thanks for your advice. I will definitely get in touch with you. At how much do you publish this book?

Thanks for taking time to read our blog. Please send your complete thesis to us at [email protected] . You will soon receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

Its a fantastic idea. I am interested. Can I publish my thesis for masters as well.

Hi Rose, thanks for your interest and appreciation. Please send your complete thesis to us at [email protected] . You will receive a formal communication with the details from our side shortly.

I have completed my PhD dissertation since 2010, it has become dusty but I think I should publish it now that there is an opportunity to do so. I research in the field of traditional medicine and the Jesus miracle in Mark 7:31-37.

Thanks for showing interest in us. I will share the publishing guide and package details with you in a short while. Please remember to check your spam folder also.

Thanks for taking time to read our blog. It’s great that you have decided to publish your thesis as a book. I will share the publishing details with you shortly.

Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Very helpful info specially the last part 🙂 I care for such info much. I used to be seeking this particular info for a long time. Thanks and good luck.

Thanks for taking time to read our blog and appreciate our work. I will share the publishing guide and package details with you in a short while. If you do not receive it in the mailbox, check your spam folder also.

I want to publish my PhD thesis into a book I need guidance

Finished my MA thesis in 2014. Not published. Can u consider it?

Thanks for taking time to read our blog. Please send your thesis at [email protected] for review.

Compliments, im interested in publishing my Ph.D thesis on tourism law, it is a novel writing on this areaa of law in Nigeria.Kindly email me the terms and conditions o this .Thank u

Excellent website. Lots of useful information here. I am sending it to some pals ans additionally sharing in delicious. And of course, thanks for your effort!

I need to know the terms and condition

I want to publish my thesis

I am a researcher in the field of materials science. Some theses of my scholars are not yet published as books. Now I wish to convert them as books and I need helps from you

We highly appreciate your site post. You will find dozens of tactics we could put it to very good use while using no effort on time and hard earned cash. Thank you very much pertaining to helping have the post reply many questions we have had before now.

Where do I send my Thesis to for review and publishig as a book

Thanks for showing interest. Please submit your manuscript at [email protected] .

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Dear Sir / Madam

I would like to publish my Ph.D. thesis into a book with ISBN and would like to know the detail for publication.

I want to publish my Ph.D. thesis. Please inform me about next necessary steps.

Dear Sir/Ma I have completed my Ph.D work but the work is unpublished but one part of the work was developed as journals and it was published internationally. Now having seen the information in your site i decided to contact you. How much Time will it take me to publish my researched work with you people? Book with isbn

Thanks for showing interest in publishing with us. It takes about 40-50 days in standard situation. But, it depends on the length of the manuscript and author response time. To start the publication process, please share your complete manuscript with us at [email protected]

I wish to apply for the publishing my thesis

I need to publish my thesis into book . Please help me in this regard

Send me process of thesis publication in book form

Thanks for showing interest in publishing with us. You will soon receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

Thanks for writing to us. You will soon receive a formal communication from our side answering your query in detail.

I have a PhD to publish. ¹ Do I have to pay any charges? 2 Will it be freely accessible online by researchers.?

Excellent blogs, Hi, I have just completed my PhD and want to get it published as a book.please provide more information about it.

This is an excellent blog, I will like to know the necessary requirements for the publication of my PhD work into a book by you. Kindly outline the deliverables and benefits, as well as coverage for the publication.

Thanks for getting in touch with us. You will hear from us soon.

I need to publish my DBA thesis as a book. How much does it cost? How long will it take to publish the book? What royalty percentage am I entitled to on each book sold? How do I know about the number of books sold at any given time? Will the book be visible globally?

Excellent . Hello , I have completed my M. Phil and want to publish my thesis as a book? Am I eligible to do it? My subject is Bangla and i am from Assam. And if it’s possible then how much of cost need for it? I hope you will response my word’s I am waiting for that. Thank you so much.

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• Dalhousie University Libraries

Scholarly Communications

• Publishing Your Thesis as a Monograph
• What is Scholarly Communications?
• Different Versions of your Article
• Publishing Before Graduation
• Publishing After Graduation
• Book Proposals
• Predatory Book Publishing
• Open Access Monographs
• Preprints as Publications
• Open Access
• Deposit/Submit
• Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Citation Diversity
• Research Impact
• Research Data Management
• Need more help?
• Author Profiles and IDs

Things to Consider

Publishing your thesis as a book can be an alternative or an accompaniment to publishing an article in a journal. If you are considering publishing your thesis as a book or monograph, here are some things to consider: 

• You will first need to edit or restructure your thesis to make it suitable for publication. When adapting your thesis for publication, consider the expectations of publishers and your potential audience. 
• Your book should be published by a commercial or academic publisher, rather than a print-on-demand or vanity press. For help finding an appropriate publisher in your subject area, consider consulting your supervisor or a librarian. Self-publishing is not considered reputable for academic careers. 
• You will need to submit a book proposal to potential publishers. For more information on this, consult the Book Proposals tab. 
• Most publishers do not consider a thesis to be prior publication. Consult with the publisher for their policies on this. 

Selected Video Resources

• “From Dissertation to Book: Navigating the Publication Process” A panel talk of academic publishing experts hosted by UC Berkeley.
• “How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book” A panel talk of publishing professionals hosted by Yale University.
• “The Monograph Publishing Process” A short video from Cambridge University.
• “From Thesis to Monograph” A short video from Cambridge University.

Selected Library Resources

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• Next: Book Proposals >>
• Last Updated: May 16, 2024 11:31 AM
• URL: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/ScholarlyCommunications

• SpringerLink shop

Revising your thesis into a book

Springer will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis including those that have been made publicly available according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification.

How to Self-Publish a Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Authors

• The Speaker Lab
• June 18, 2024

Table of Contents

If you’ve always wanted to see your name on the front of a book, here’s some exciting news for you. Learning how to self-publish a book is more straightforward than it used to be. Forget about needing a traditional publisher; now, self-publishing lets you take charge and present your story just the way you’ve envisioned.

So, are you ready to publish your own book? This guide breaks down the entire process for you! From fine-tuning your manuscript and designing a striking cover to spreading the word about your creation, we have all bases covered. It doesn’t matter if this is your debut or another project in a long line—let’s turn that idea into reality together!

Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: What’s the Difference?

If you’re aiming to become an author, you’ve probably considered both self-publishing and traditional publishing. Each option comes with benefits as well as challenges; understanding these will guide you in choosing the right path for your book journey.

Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing

Self-publishing has become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks to the rise of digital publishing platforms like Amazon KDP. When you self-publish, you have complete control over the creative process, from writing and editing to book cover design and marketing. You also get to keep a larger share of the royalties , typically around 60-70% of the retail price.

At the same time, self-publishing means you’re on the hook for every expense—paying for an editor, finding a great cover designer, and handling formatting are just part of it. You’ll also have to spend money on marketing and ads. Plus, without help from a traditional publisher, landing spots in brick-and-mortar stores isn’t easy.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishing involves submitting your manuscript to a publishing company and hoping they’ll offer you a contract. If accepted, the publisher will handle the editing, design, and distribution of your book, as well as some marketing and promotion. You’ll also receive an advance on royalties, which can range from a few thousand to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the publisher and the book’s potential.

The downside of traditional publishing is that it can be incredibly competitive, with many authors receiving multiple rejections before finding a publisher. You also have less control over the final product, as the publisher will have a say in everything from the title and cover design to the release date and pricing. And while you’ll still earn royalties, they’ll typically be lower than what you’d earn from self-publishing, around 10-15% of the retail price .

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Who Should Choose Traditional Publishing?

If you’re working on a book that could grab the attention of a huge audience, like commercial fiction or a celebrity tell-all, traditional publishing might be your best bet. Publishers are always searching for potential bestsellers and have the tools and know-how to get your book in front of lots of readers.

If you’re a first-time author aiming to make your mark in the book publishing industry, traditional publishing might be a great option. Getting your book out there through a well-known traditional publisher can add credibility and help you snag future gigs like speaking engagements or teaching jobs.

Who Should Choose Self-Publishing?

If you’re writing a book that appeals to a niche audience, such as a how-to guide or a collection of poetry, self-publishing may be the better option. Self-publishing allows you to target your ideal readers directly, without having to convince a publisher that your book has commercial potential. As an indie author, you have the freedom to reach your target audience on your own terms.

If you’re an independent author looking for creative freedom, self-publishing might be the way to go. With this option, every decision about your book—from what goes in it to how it’s sold—is yours alone. It’s ideal if you’ve got strong ideas that you’d rather not compromise.

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Self-Publish a Book

If you’re set on the self-publishing route, check out this step-by-step guide on how to self-publish a book.

• Write and edit your book. This may seem obvious, but it’s important to make sure your book is the best it can be before you start the publishing process. Consider hiring a professional editor to help you refine your work and ensure your manuscript is polished and error-free.
• Choose a self-publishing platform. There are many options available, including Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital. Research each platform to determine which one best fits your needs and budget. Consider factors like royalty rates, distribution options, and ease of use.
• Format your book. Once your book is edited, you’ll need to format it for publication. This includes creating a table of contents, designing the interior layout, and converting your manuscript into the appropriate file format (such as EPUB or PDF). You can use free software like Calibre or hire a professional formatter to ensure your book looks its best.
• Design a cover. Your book cover is often the first thing potential readers will see, so it’s important to make a good impression. Consider hiring a professional designer to create an eye-catching cover that accurately represents your book’s content and genre. A high-quality cover can help your book stand out in a crowded market.
• Set a price. Pricing your book can be tricky, as you want to balance profitability with accessibility. Research the prices of similar books in your genre and consider factors like page count and production costs when setting your price. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different price points to find the sweet spot that maximizes your sales and revenue.
• Publish and promote your book. Once your book is formatted and priced, it’s time to hit the “publish” button. But your work doesn’t end there. To ensure your book reaches its target audience, you’ll need to invest time and effort into marketing and promotion. This can include building an author bio , leveraging social media, and reaching out to book bloggers and reviewers. Consider offering free copies or discounts to encourage reviews and word-of-mouth buzz.

If you’re willing to work hard, self-publishing offers an empowering journey. Keep your eyes on the prize as you follow these steps, and soon enough you’ll have successfully published your book for all the world to read. With tools like print-on-demand technology and platforms such as Amazon at their disposal, self-published authors now have incredible opportunities right at their fingertips.

1. Write a Marketable Book

Writing a book that sells is key when you’re learning how to self-publish a book. You need to research your target audience and choose a popular genre or niche. Write a compelling story with well-developed characters and a strong plot.

In addition, make sure your book has a clear message or theme that resonates with readers. The most successful books are ones that address a felt need or desire in the market. What are people struggling with that your book can help them solve?

Another key factor is grabbing attention with a strong hook. What makes your book different from the rest in its genre? Maybe you have a fresh take on things, an unusual story structure, or a main character who breaks all the rules.

Consider what feelings or knowledge your ideal reader wants to gain from your book. What strategies will keep their interest piqued? Crafting a popular book means connecting deeply with readers and making sure they enjoy every page.

2. Professionally Edit Your Book

When learning how to self-publish, getting a professional editor is crucial. Even the best writers need another pair of eyes to catch mistakes and refine their work.

There are different types of editing to consider:

• Developmental editing to improve the structure and content
• Line editing to refine the language and style
• Proofreading to catch any remaining errors

A good editor does more than just correct errors; they give you feedback that can really elevate your book. They help refine the plot, add depth to your characters, and make sure your themes come through clearly.

If you’re on the hunt for an editor, pick one who’s familiar with your specific genre and experienced in helping self-publishing authors. Look at their credentials carefully and see what past clients have said about them.

Investing in professional editing does more than polish your book; it also highlights your dedication as an author. A thoroughly edited manuscript reflects that you value both your craft and the time of your readers.

3. Select Your Self-Publishing Platform

Picking the best self-publishing platform is a big step in getting your book out there. With so many choices, it’s smart to look into each option and find a publishing platform that fits what you want and need. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but we’re here to guide you through your options so that picking the best fit for your book becomes easier.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

First up, let’s talk about the big kahuna: Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). If you’re looking to reach the widest possible audience and tap into Amazon’s massive customer base, KDP is definitely worth considering. Plus, with their print-on-demand technology, you can easily create paperback versions of your book without having to worry about inventory or upfront costs. In addition, they offer competitive royalty rates and helpful tools for formatting and pricing your book.

One thing to keep in mind with KDP, though, is that they do take a larger cut of your royalties compared to some other services. But for many authors, the trade-off is worth it for the exposure and convenience that comes with publishing through Amazon.

Draft2Digital

If you’re looking for a more hands-off approach to self-publishing, Draft2Digital might be the way to go. They offer a wide range of publishing services, from ebook formatting to distribution across multiple platforms. And the best part? They don’t charge any upfront fees—they simply take a percentage of your book sales.

One potential downside to Draft2Digital is that they don’t offer print distribution. So if you’re set on seeing your book in physical form, you’ll need to look elsewhere. However, for authors who are primarily focused on ebooks, Draft2Digital can be a great option.

IngramSpark

Looking to see your book in bookstores or local libraries? Consider using IngramSpark, known for its wide distribution network and print-on-demand services. They can get your book into bookstores and libraries around the globe, as well as online retailers like Barnes & Noble and Apple Books. With access to more than 39,000 retailers and libraries worldwide, they can significantly increase how many people discover your work.

The downside to IngramSpark is that they do charge setup fees for each book you publish with them. However, if you’re willing to invest a little upfront, the potential payoff in terms of increased exposure and sales can be well worth it.

Factors to Consider Before Deciding

When you’re checking out different publishing platforms, consider factors such as user-friendliness, cost, and available features. In addition, you’ll want to think about

• Royalty rates and pricing options
• Distribution channels and reach
• Ease of use and customer support
• Available formats (ebook, paperback, hardcover, audio)
• Marketing and promotional tools

Keep in mind that you don’t have to choose just one self-publishing platform. Many successful self-publishing authors use a combination of services to maximize their reach and revenue. For example, you could use Kindle Direct Publishing for your ebook and IngramSpark for your print edition.

The best publishing platform for you really hinges on what you’re aiming to achieve, how much you can spend , and who you’re trying to reach. Spend some time checking out your choices so you can pick the one that helps you hit it big.

4. Format Your Book for Publication

Before publishing your book, first consider if you want it in print or digital form. Both print books and ebooks come with their own sets of rules and best practices that are worth learning about before you commit to one or another.

Formatting for Print Books

Formatting a print book involves more than just throwing your Word document into a layout program and calling it a day. You’ll need to consider factors like trim size, margins, font choice, and page layout. Many self-publishing platforms provide templates or tools to help you format your book files correctly. Alternatively, you might try Adobe InDesign, which is specifically designed for print layouts. While it takes some time to learn the formatting software, the end result is a professional-looking book that you can be proud to put your name on.

Formatting for eBooks

Formatting an ebook is a bit different than formatting for print. Instead of worrying about physical page layouts, you’ll need to create a clean, readable EPUB file that works across different devices and screen sizes. This typically involves using HTML and CSS to control the appearance of the text and images.

If you’re looking for an awesome way to format your ebook, check out Vellum . This software is really user-friendly and helps you design beautiful, polished ebooks effortlessly. Plus, it can produce multiple ebook formats so you can easily get them on various platforms.

5. Create an Eye-Catching Book Cover

We all know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but if we’re honest, that’s exactly what readers do. When you’re learning how to self-publish, nailing your book cover design is crucial for grabbing attention and conveying your story’s genre and tone.

When designing a cover, consider your target audience and what they expect to see in your genre. Research current cover design trends and bestselling books in your category for inspiration. Your ebook cover should be visually appealing and easy to read, even as a thumbnail image online.

While it may be tempting to DIY your cover to save money, consider hiring a professional cover designer instead, especially if you’re not confident in your design skills. A professional cover designer will have the expertise to create a high-quality, attention-grabbing book cover that meets industry standards.

When working with a cover designer, provide them with a clear brief that includes your book’s title, subtitle, genre, target audience, and any specific imagery or elements you want to include. Be open to their creative input and trust their expertise.

Your book cover design is the first impression readers get, whether they’re scrolling through an online store or wandering in a bookstore. A striking ebook cover can catch their eye and set you apart as an author.

6. Pricing Your Self-Published Book

You’ve finished your book and picked out a self-publishing service. You’re almost ready to publish, but there’s one last thing to decide: how much should you price your book?

Pricing your self-published book can be tricky. You want to make sure you’re not undervaluing your work, but you also don’t want to price yourself out of the market. So what’s an author to do?

First, take a look at the retail price of similar books in your genre. This will give you a good baseline to work from. Keep in mind that ebooks are typically priced lower than print books, so adjust accordingly.

Next, consider your royalty rate. Different self-publishing services offer different royalty structures, so make sure you understand how much you’ll be earning per sale. If you’re using a service like Amazon KDP, keep in mind that you’ll earn a higher royalty percentage on ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99.

Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment with pricing. You can always adjust your price up or down based on how well your book is selling. And if you’re running a promotion or sale, temporarily lowering your price can be a great way to boost print sales and get more eyes on your book.

7. Launch Your Book Like a Product

Launching your self-published book is an exciting moment, but it’s not just about hitting the “publish” button and hoping for the best. To really make an impact, you need to treat your book launch like a product launch.

Creating excitement before your book’s release is essential. Start by building an author website and growing your email list to keep fans in the loop. Reach out to book bloggers and reviewers for extra buzz, and consider throwing a virtual or in-person launch event on the big day.

A successful book launch hinges on effective marketing. Tap into social media by offering sneak peeks of the writing process, teasing passages from the story, and engaging directly with readers to create anticipation for pre-orders. If you’re using Amazon KDP, you could even run price promotions, offer your book for free for a limited time, and advertise directly on Amazon’s site.

Another smart move for promoting your book is connecting with bloggers and critics within your genre. Send them a free copy so they can review it honestly. Their reviews can enhance visibility while offering credibility that persuades others to read it too.

Don’t forget the impact of good old-fashioned word of mouth. Get your friends, family, and fans talking about your book. Ask them to leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, share it on social media, and recommend it to their circles. You never know who might pick up a copy and fall in love with it.

Getting your self-published book noticed takes a lot of work and determination. However, if you stay creative and persistent, reaching that bestseller status is within your grasp. So keep at it—write more, promote often, and most importantly, believe in yourself. You can do this.

8. Market Your Book on Social Media

Your book marketing strategy shouldn’t stop after launch day—social media should be part of it long-term. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram help you stay connected with readers by sharing behind-the-scenes looks at your author journey and promoting your work to a large audience.

When using social media to market your books, don’t just post “buy my book” type messages. While this is your ultimate goal, this approach won’t lead to healthy audience engagement or sales. Instead, use your social media to provide value to your followers. What can you teach them about the writing process? The publishing process? Engaging with your audience’s questions and interests is the key to successful book marketing on social media.

In addition, dive into interesting aspects of your book’s subject matter while offering useful writing advice here and there. Let fans catch glimpses of what being an author looks like for you personally. When discussing your latest work, point out its standout features along with reader perks—and make sure you’re engaging with them through replies or questions so those relationships stay genuine.

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9. Start Writing Your Next Book

Congratulations, you’ve successfully self-published your book! But don’t rest on your laurels just yet. One of the best things you can do to build momentum as an indie author is to start working on your next book right away.

It’s tempting to take time off after completing a book, but starting your next project quickly is beneficial. Maintaining a regular release schedule makes fans happy and keeps you creatively engaged while improving your craft with each new piece you write.

A robust backlist not only attracts new readers but also keeps long-time fans coming back for more. Think of each book as another chance for someone to dive into everything else you’ve created; the larger your library, the higher the chances you’ll build a strong reader base.

So breathe deeply and give yourself some well-deserved credit, then dive back into your craft. Your next book is calling, and readers are eagerly awaiting it!

FAQs on How to Self-Publish a Book

How much does it cost to self-publish a book.

Costs vary, but expect $2000-$4000 for editing, cover design, and formatting. You can save money by using free software.

Can I publish my own book for free?

You can use platforms like Amazon KDP without upfront costs. However, quality services may still incur expenses.

Is it legal to self-publish a book?

Yes, it’s legal if you hold the rights or have permission from the copyright owner of the content you’re publishing.

Is it wise to self-publish a book?

If you want control over your work and higher royalties per sale compared to traditional publishing houses, then, yes, it is smart.

In this article, you’ve learned how exactly to self-publish a book, from editing your story to launching your book with a bang. Remember, self-publishing puts the power in your hands. You get to make the decisions, from your book’s content to its cover design and pricing.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. To succeed as a self-published author, you’ll need to wear many hats—writer, editor, marketer, and more. It’s a challenging journey, but also an incredibly rewarding one.

Don’t wait any longer! Take what you’ve learned and start sharing your story today—the world is ready to hear from you!

• Last Updated: June 12, 2024

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The Copyright Office has implemented a new group registration option for unpublished works. Read more .

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Organic Chemistry Frontiers

Benzeneseleninic acid used as an oxidizing and deprotecting reagent for the syn-thesis of multi-cyclic peptides constrained by multiple disulfide bonds and thioether bridges.

Multi-cyclic peptides constrained by disulfide bonds (MDBs) or thioether bridges play a critical role on improving the biological and pharmaceutical activities of peptide drugs. The synthesis of correct MDBs and thioether-bridged bicyclic peptides still re-mains as a significant challenge task. In this work, benzeneseleninic acid (BA) used as an oxidant and deprotecting reagent for the synthesis of peptide MDBs and thioether-bridged bicyclic peptides has been investigated. Peptide disulfide bond can be formed by direct oxidation of two sulfhydryl groups by BA in neutral media or via two concerted steps, namely deprotecting two acetamidomethyl (Acm) groups and oxidation by BA in acidic media. As such, two disulfide bonds in a-conotoxin SI, apamin, a-conotoxin IMI and a peptide containing methionine residue were synthesized regioselectively by use of the BA oxidation and deprotection reactions (BA-ODr). Moreover, the relative positions of two Acm-protected cysteines and two free cysteines have no impact on the BA-ODr approach for the construction of two disulfide bonds in peptides. Utilization of the BA deprotection reaction, bicyclic peptides were synthesized based on the crosslinking of xylylene dibromide with sulfhydryl group giving satisfied yields. Furthermore, two disulfide bonds in a-conotoxin SI and three disulfide bonds in conotoxin mr3e, enterotoxin STp, μ-conotoxin KIIIA, linaclotide and ziconotide were also synthesized regioselectively with reasonable yields through oxidation of fully reduced peptides by BA. BA is readily accessible conferring efficient BA-ODr and oxidative folding strategies for preparation of MBDs and thioether bridges in peptides.

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Y. Xing, T. Bo, N. Zhang, M. Wu, J. Wang, S. Shen, Y. Wang, C. Song, T. Shi and S. Huo, Org. Chem. Front. , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D4QO00589A

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