PhD thesis itself (or even large bits of it). Even the few
publishers who still look carefully at academic monograph
books may well shy away from the prospect of issuing your
PhD thesis, sending you a premature standard letter of
rejection if you leave any room for doubt.
◆ Specify the book’s structure. Give the overall length of the
text, chapter and maybe section headings, and each
chapter’s length.
◆ Describe the book’s contents. Write about half a page per
chapter, concentrating on giving a substantive account of
the book’s key value-added contribution.
◆ Give a market rationale for the book. You need to specify
who the readers will be and make a properly justified and
realistic estimate of the sales prospects for a hardback
edition. Such books are expensive, especially from British or
European publishers. They sell mostly to university libraries
(but perhaps also to a business market in disciplines like
management or information technology). You can also
estimate some sales (50 to 100 copies) to professional
academics in your particular subfield. In some circumstances
it may be feasible to anticipate some public library sales.
A reasonable minimum number of sales to aim for is 500
copies worldwide for a US-based publisher, although this
may prove very optimistic if you are writing to a British or
European firm producing very high-priced hardcover
monographs. In this latter case 300 sales may seem more
feasible. You should also include a case for a paperback
edition, if you can estimate at least 1000 sales. Explain how
the market would broaden out if lower-cost copies were
available. Publishers will very rarely publish a paperback
version of a monograph immediately, preferring to wait and
see how many hardcover sales are achieved, so the
paperback case is mostly nominal. But it may help to
include one, so long as you can make a credible case.
◆ Include a very brief suggested marketing strategy. Try to
identify journals and more general-purpose library or
university periodicals which might review the book and
generate sales. If your book is accepted the publishers will
want you to fill in a detailed marketing plan questionnaire.
But it can help convince them that your book has a realistic
258 ◆AUTHORING A PHD