One of the most important things you’ll ever do in your career is to write your dissertation for your Ph.D. Sure, in the future, you may be part of more impactful work, but without that dissertation, you wouldn’t get there.

Many scholars complete Ph.D. research that is so valuable and significant that they consider turning it into a book. If you’re thinking about doing this but are a little intimidated at the thought of “writing a book,” take heart. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. You’ve already done the hard part when you wrote your dissertation. Now, it’s a matter of compiling all of your research together with the manuscript and merging it all into a page-turner that would interest a general audience.

Options to Consider for Publishing Your Work

The obvious way to publish Ph.D. research is in the format of a journal article. This is how most authors get their work published in a way that satisfies the requirements of their dissertation specifications or continuing education aspects. However, there are other methods you can use to get your work published and reach a broader market.

You could turn your thesis into a book if you think the idea is interesting to enough people to warrant the effort and cost. Can your thesis become a book with an answer, comprehensive discussion, and solid conclusion? Is it innovative enough to compete with other books on the same topic?

The book component could also be a structure in which you’re collaborating with other researchers. Co-authoring books is a common practice in today’s collaborative field. You don’t have to use all of your thesis. Parts of it that pertain to the topic of the book and fit in seamlessly with the other content still count as publishing your research writing. The same idea applies to taking sections of your thesis and including them in an already edited book to enhance the scope of the published work.

Finally, some scholars take their entire thesis and adjust it to create mini-articles. These articles are then published in different journals. Your work gets a broader audience, but you risk the chance of losing part of the impact because it was split up.

Tips to Streamline the Transition

If you’re serious about publishing your Ph.D. writing as a book, use these tips to streamline the transition from an academic manuscript into a successful story:

●      Don’t think about your general audience and the book potential yet. Write your dissertation targeted for future undergrad courses. Keep your writing focused on that audience, and avoid including anything that would interest some, but not most, readers.

●      Write your thesis in a compact, impactful way. You’ve likely seen dissertations that are hundreds of pages long. This can be your book, but you’re more likely to get published in academic journals if your work is short. When you do write your book, you’ll be able to convert the thesis into a story by adding a little extra here and there, and it will still be short enough to interest a publisher.

●      Investigate your target market. Is there an audience wide enough to gain the attention of a publisher? If you self-publish, will you be able to attract your target market?

●      Use a stylish voice that is easy to read. Avoid scientific jargon and academic prose. If your book is hard to read, unformatted, and boring, publishers won’t accept it, and if you self-publish, readers will give up on the book after they turn the first few pages.

●      Focus on the publishers, not your committee. If the committee requires you to do certain things with your work that you don’t want for your book, keep two files. Make one the “committee-specific” text, and then open the book file and adjust it as you go. Once your dissertation is approved, you can turn to the book file and get it ready to submit to a publisher.

With these small tips in mind as you write for your Ph.D., you’ll find it much easier to transition from an academic manuscript into a publishable book. 

Using Impactio to Optimize Your Publication

After your academic works are published, how will you know how impactful they were? Impactio provides you the tools to monitor your research, compare it to other similar works, and see how well your writing is doing in your field.

Impactio’s tools make impact analytics an automated process, so you can see at a glance where your strengths and weaknesses are. Optimize your publications with Impactio, and elevate your writing craft to make an impact on a wider audience.