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If I have found a publisher that will publish my dissertation, is this ok, to publish your original dissertation as a book. if so are there things you should leave out of dissertation like appendix or signature page.

Jeromy Anglim
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  • Do (text)books have appendices? – Solar Mike Dec 18 '18 at 06:44
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    The first thing every editor of a serious publisher (as opposed to a vanity press) will tell you is that a PhD thesis is not a book. I can't write a full answer now, but you should just google 'from PhD to book'. It took me several months to go from thesis to book, but YMMV. – henning Dec 18 '18 at 07:10
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    Yes, just a warning: There are unserious publisher (Grin Verlag, AV Akademikerverlag) who write alumni that they want to publish there thesis. Be very careful and of course, discuss with your advisor! – Haque Dec 18 '18 at 07:49
  • Publishing your thesis (in a legitimate publisher) is the normal thing for certain majors in the humanities. In fact you may spend the first 2 or 3 years after you get a university position preparing your thesis for publication, and only be tenured if/when it is published. – GEdgar Dec 18 '18 at 11:58
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    Following up on Haque's comment: just in case it is a similar situation, you might want to have a look at the following question (especially the accepted answer and the link within): https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2513/is-lambert-academic-publishing-a-reputable-company. – Disenchanted Lurker Dec 18 '18 at 12:30
  • Other than warnings about predatory publishers and miscellaneous personal anecdotes, I do not think you will get a useful Answer to your question without (a) specifying your field and (b) giving some idea about the nature of your thesis. // In math there are famous examples of important theses less than an dozen pages in length; none of those would make a suitable book. The nature of introductory material, historical perspectives, footnotes, and so on may vary greatly between an acceptable thesis and a useful book. – BruceET Dec 25 '18 at 20:57
  • @SolarMike Yes, https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Appendix – user2768 Jan 05 '19 at 15:44
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    @user2768 so don’t exclude them then... and my text books have appendices, so guess what I was trying to get the OP to see... – Solar Mike Jan 05 '19 at 19:42
  • @SolarMike Now I can understand your comment. – user2768 Jan 06 '19 at 11:08
  • From my discussions with professors, many that turned their dissertations into books rewrote most of it (because dissertations typically don’t fly off the shelves) and also had to adjust their citations because there were too many in the dissertation and the publisher didn’t want to waste the ink. Look more into the publisher and then ask your advisor for advice – Kevin Miller Feb 16 '19 at 08:40

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