appeal. Are there parts of the thesis which are off-putting for
readers and that can be hived off to a separate journal article?
A prime candidate here is an overlong literature review chapter,
some of which might be spun off to form a review article in a
journal. You can then simply reference the article in a shorter
set-up chapter for the main core of the book. (In rare cases a
very strong PhD may best be published in the form of two
shorter books, one handling the literature review elements
more as a student-orientated book, and the other handling the
original research.)
Before you approach publishers you should also examine
whether there are elements that could be addedto the book, to
extend your thesis analysis and to make it more attractive for
potential purchasers. In the social sciences if the period covered
by your thesis ends some years ago, then publishers often want it
brought right up to date. Similarly publishers may be interested
in additional sections or chapters which put a thesis analysis in a
wider context, or make it less narrowly focused, and perhaps
boost the book’s usability for advanced students as well as pro-
fessional readers. Of course, any such additions come at a high
price. You have to make space for them by achieving greater cuts
in the wordage allocated to your original thesis chapters. New
writing then takes extra time to accomplish, and you may also
have to do new research to cope with the extensions.
Only when you have formed a plan for achieving a mar-
ketable, fully ‘book-ified’ version of your thesis should you
approach publishers. You need to write a book proposal which
meets these points:
◆ Set out the academic rationale for the book. Explain the
intellectual reasons why your book is valuable for your
discipline or broad research area. It can be very helpful to
attach at this point positive references about your PhD
thesis from distinguished and well-known examiners, who
can stress its suitability for publication and wide interest in
the profession. A brief supportive reference from your
supervisors might also be useful, if they are well-known
people. Make clear, though, that what you are proposing is a
thoroughly reworked book version of original, high-quality
research, and not the direct publication of an unchanged
PUBLISHING YOUR RESEARCH◆ 257