reusing your thesis

Just my 2c.

My first thought would be to check on the rights. The thesis is partially the work of your supervisors and the funders and institution also have a claim.

One way around this is to sit down and basically write a new 'book format' version of the same idea to which they have no claim. In my experience thesis formatting is not attractive to general readers but it depends how silly your institution is in sticking to trad formats.

My experience is that most academics don't place any value on the rights. They're just happy that someone wants to publish the work without charging a fee. Still, it's always good to ask, and you might be in a field where written intellectual properties are valued.

Susan Rabiner in her book Thinking Like Your Editor has a good section about turning a thesis into a nonfiction book for general readers. It's a good book to read otherwise, too.

giftedrhonda said:

. . .
Any thoughts or advice are much appreciated!

Thanks,

Rhonda

Click to expand...

Couple of comments:

1. Once upon a time (26+ years ago) I was an "outside reader" for master's theses in education and in management. The range was wide, from meager to masterful. Whether yours could be the basis for a book depends on subject and on quality of writing.

2. FWIW, some years ago (oh, maybe nearing 20 or so now), I worked with a woman who had written a fine doctoral dissertation in Sociology on the exploitation of workers through what we now call "outsourcing" (not offshoring then, but outsourcing for sure). She was a socialist (I mean that literally), and had strong views, well documented and well laid out. I read the dissertation (I asked to read it, as it sounded interesting), and I recommended that she seek publication. Mind you, at the time I was a generally conservative Republican, but I could not dispute that she hit some nails right on the head.

Well, she did seek publication, and the dissertation was (in edited form) published as a book, The Invisible Workforce, by Beverly Lozano. It sold poorly (which was fine with Beverly, who, as a socialist, objected to corporate profits). But here is the rub: the publisher turned her jeremiad against exploitation of workers into, in essence, a how-to for corporate exploitation of workers. (That is one of the reasons I take the glamor and appeal of commercial publishing with a large grain of salt.) Damn shame, as she could have made a name for herself (albeit she was ahead of her time) and could have pressed her case had she insisted on a published version that was true to her argument and evidence.

3. As for how -- assuming any rights issues are tidied up with the institution (the copyright should be yours, but maybe it is best to get that in writing) -- follow the usual drill: queries and book proposals. There are good books and articles on how to write queries and book proposals, and of course references like Writer's Market and Literary Marketplace that could help you find targets. It might make sense to query an agent, but not necessarily for your particular project. Lots of homework to be done there. Bear Beverly Lozano's experience in mind: she started with her dissertation and queries. She got an acceptance. The publisher handled or supervised edits (not, in my view, with a happy result, but so be it). Publishing has changed a lot in those decades, but it is probably still worth the attempt.

Offered for whatever it might be worth.

--Ken

When you filed your thesis if you assigned copyright to UMI Microfiche or their partners, they own the rights. Otherwise, in the US, you do.