Is Your Doctoral Thesis Ready to Become a Book? A Complete Guide for PhD Scholars

The PhD thesis is one of the intellectual accomplishments in academia that is of utmost level of challenging accomplishment. It is a product of years of hard work of research, original contribution and academic discipline. However, the moment the degree is received, the burning question that comes to the researcher’s mind is, What am I meant to do with my thesis? Increasingly, it appears that many students undertaking doctorates have begun to consider the possibility of publishing their resultant PhD work in the form of a book that will be of interest to a wider academic and professional audience.

Making a PhD thesis a book is not an automatic process. Readers, publishers, and book reviewers will not want your bound dissertation. Still have doubts as to whether your PhD thesis can be published as a book? With the help of this article, you will be able to determine the steps that you should follow in order to render it publishable.

The Pursuit of a PhD Thesis book

Your PhD thesis can have a tremendous implication on a book. However, a thesis is intended to be read by examiners whereas a book is intended to be read by readers, including academics, practitioners, students and policy makers all over the world.

• By publishing a book you are able to: 
• Become a leader in your profession.
• Publish your study with a wider audience.
• Boost your academic resume and profile. 
• Promote applications of tenure and career.

Add enduring expertise to your field. Publishers of books are, however, selective. It is critical to understand their expectations and then proceed to the next step.

Realizing the Major Distinction between a Thesis and a Book

The greatest misunderstanding of the PhD graduates is that a thesis can merely be submitted to a publisher with very little alteration. As a matter of fact, a thesis and a book are meant to perform totally different functions.

A PhD thesis:

• Evidences research competency.
• Inclined to much methodology and literature review.

Is written for examiners

Frequently has a strict academic format. 

A book, on the other hand: 

• Consecutive interesting academic narrative.
• Gives more focus to arguments and insights than methods.
• Is not a book to be studied, but read.
• Needs high story line and readability. 

The initial sign of preparedness is the acknowledgment of this difference.

Evaluating the Quality of Your Key Idea.

Publishers seek books that have a solid and cohesive argument that have the ability to keep a reader interested throughout the chapters. Several theses present a variety of research questions, which might require their unification. 

Ask yourself:

• Does my thesis have a strong, clear point?
• What is the applicability of this argument outside my own subfield?
• Does it have a good detailed story that links all of the chapters together? 

When you can formulate your thesis around one strong idea, then it has a better chance of being a successful book.

Appraising Innovativeness and Topicality

The book publishers evaluate academic and commercial standing. Even a great research should be relevant to an existing debate or emergent area.

Your thesis will be book-ready when: 

• It deals with a relevant or under-researched subject.
• It provides new theoretical or empirical point of view.
• It addresses foreign or multidisciplinary audiences. 
• It conforms to the available series in books or the publisher.

Knowing your place in the present publishing environment makes your proposal better.

Redoing Construction and Content to Book Form

Thesis chapters can usually require a lot of reorganization. Book readers may be overwhelmed by long literature reviews, comprehensive methodology section and extensive data analysis.

When adapting your thesis: 

• Eliminate or combine literature reviews.
• Automate methodological descriptions.
• Consider interpretation and not raw data.
• Arrange chapters better to enhance the storyline. 

A good book is written in form of a whole and not a compilation of dissertation chapters.

Style of writing: Between Research Fitness and Accessible Academia

Clarity and engagement are important to book publishers. Although the level of scholarship is not compromised, writing style ought to be easier to read than thesis. 

To enhance the readability, it is necessary to: 

• Shorter, clearer sentences
• Reduced technical jargon Elaborations on important concepts.
• Interesting introductions and conclusions.

Good writing implies the professionalism and is more likely to attract the attention of a publisher.

Providing Audience and Impact

The question that publishers pose, and one of the most important questions is: Who will read this book? 

The clear identification of:

• Target audience (researchers, students, professionals).
• Course adoption potential 
• International relevance 
• Policy or practice implications.

Improving evidence is assuring publishers that your book will get its audience.

Ethical and Copyright Issues.

institutional/legal requirements Pre-conversion of your thesis into a book.

Among the things to bear in mind, there are:

• Copyright policies in universities.
• Licenses in already published content.
• Ethical acceptance and data use authority.
• Recognition of supervisors or co-workers.

 These problems can be solved at the initial stage to avoid publication delays.

Coming up with a Powerful Book Proposal

 A detailed book proposal is normally required as opposed to a full manuscript by most academic publishers.

The strength of a proposal usually contains:

The contribution of the book is clearly described.

• Chapter summaries
• Competing titles and market analysis.
• Teaching potential and intended audience.
• Sample chapters

 It is important that you are able to sell your thesis as a commercially viable book.

Red Flags Your Thesis Is Not Book Ready Yet.

PhD thesis are not all ready to be published in books. Common challenges include:

• Too narrow or technical or focus.
• Weak narrative cohesion 
• Outdated literature or data 
• Limited audience appeal 

All these problems are not an indication that your work is not valuable, they just need upgrading.

The Professional Editing and Publishing Support Role

The successful writers are numerous who want professional assistance in developing a thesis into a book. The editorial assistance may assist in the refining of the structure, tone and positioning.

The professional help can:

• Enhance readability 
• Meet publisher expectations.
• Strengthen book proposals
• Reduce revision cycles 

The success of publishing more depends on quality preparation.

Summary: Ready to Become a Book: An Idea of a Thesis

Completing your PhD into a book is a good move that can pick up your research and career. Provided that your work shows originality, good argumentation, global applicability and writing to the audience, it can be already on its way to publication. Through careful editing, consideration of positioning and professional presentation, your thesis can become more than an academic necessity, and become a permanent contribution to the scholarship. 

The submission is not the end of your PhD journey. To a great number of scholars, it is merely the start of a greater scholarly heritage.