Dissertation to book

There are some good books available for people to consult as they begin this job. And yes, go the hard route–the route of actually publishing a few articles as peer reviewed pubs, and then writing up a proposal for the book and submitting it to the very top presses in your field, most likely based in the United States. The biggest mistake he sees from first-time authors is that they tend to send him proposals that read more like dissertation descriptions, not actual book proposals. University of Chicago Press: 1427 E. Dominic Boyer suggests that junior scholars put the dissertation away for a few years in order to work on writing articles first, since peer reviews can be invaluable in helping you tease out the arguments for your book. So, if you’re not actually staring down the barrel of year 5, then take a break, and apply for grants.

So, here, if your market is not undergrad classes, then what is it. Once you leave the institution where you were awarded your degree, that support structure can seem, in retrospect, a great asset no longer in reach. In addition to the things just mentioned, most presses will also ask you for a table of contents, one or two sample chapters, and an estimation of the length and the number of images you will be using. After the book has appeared, if you have follow-up questions (such as “How can I be sure that my book will be on the table at the next HSS meeting. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press. A doctoral thesis, however, is quite often not an argument at all, but only a very small part of a bigger argument taking place in one’s discipline or in American society or in culture more broadly.

Once the full manuscript, edited according to the readers’ suggestions, and all letters of permission are in, your book will be “launched” in a crucial meeting at the press. Even before you start to revise, think hard about whom you’re writing for and how you can make your ideas accessible to as many people as possible. What do I do with the literature review. Please give me your perspective. But it is no longer recognizable as your dissertation.

You have to be consistent.   If your committee shies away from such showmanship, write a shadow chapter that you include once you’ve defended and are ready to send the mss. Ask people who are highly respected in a variety of different fields and whose names will be known to the readers you want to attract. ” Well, believe me it is definitely “not a book” and I am unfortunately facing that music right now the hard way. I’m not currently affiliated to any institution, though I have work experience in the field.

” In other words, when it comes to writing a solid book proposal, less is often more. If you are in a book field, the fact is, your dissertation must be transformed into a book to be of full value to you. In the past, said Mitchner, the idea was that advance journal publication “would create a buzz” for a forthcoming book. As they read your work, they will be weighing both their words and the strength of your friendship.

Discard the whole thing—the research, the structure, the prose. Although that may be the recipe for a dissertation, it isn’t the formula for a book. Don’t presume that the same individuals will be reading your full manuscript as read your proposal, and above all, don’t lose sleep trying to figure out who they are. All of the teaching staff was impressed after reading it. This book should be handed to the candidate at the conclusion of all doctoral defenses.

Librarians at small colleges with more limited budgets seem to behave no differently. Even today, many dissertations fall into the trap of making claims too grand for the evidence mustered by the author. Sometimes that structure may be a burden, or even an obstacle, for the writer. As academic publishers know, the first book manuscript will try to make claims it can’t fulfill. I’d find out what other books have recently come out from major univ. You should never find out who your readers are, and probably you never will.

One failed to notice that I had cited the “Norton Critical Addition,” which I spotted only at the page proof stage. Do they have the resources to get your book to the people you want to read it. I just finished writing a dissertation of my own, and I’m looking to turn this into a book. I’m in my last year at university and I chose to write a dissertation. And try your hand at writing across formats—articles, book reviews, blog posts, op-ed pieces, anything that helps you change up your presentation and style.

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      not, however, know anything about the publishing process. Do they have the resources to get your book to the people you want to read it. Could you tell us how to send the book out to presses. Its content and style will reflect on you, faculty members who have guided your work, and on the University of Washington. If theory aspired to a condition of intellectual purity, or inspired thousands of scholars to do so, it was a condition impossible to sustain for long. In the Great Age of Theory, that heady period from the late sixties through the late nineties, many a modest idea came packaged as a Theory, with bona fide credentials leading back to Continental masters.

      The editor will want you to learn and benefit from the readers’ suggestions, and after you have read them, you will usually need to submit a formal response saying how you will edit your manuscript to incorporate their ideas

      But what is it about the dissertation that makes it so unlikely that it can be made to speak. My committee praised my work. My issue is that I don’t think it makes sense to revise my dissertation into a book. The humanities yearned for the authority of abstraction. The pages, which appear not to have been disturbed, are accompanied by a note. Like the kid in the choir who’s afraid she cannot carry a tune and doesn’t want to be found out, the dissertation makes as small a sound as possible.

5 Comments

  1. Dina Rumble July 9, 2015
  2. Susanna Aunola July 28, 2015
  3. Adaldrida Rumble July 28, 2015
  4. Chikuariarikiku August 29, 2015
  5. Martina Eisenberg August 31, 2015

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