Here’s a question that comes up frequently among scholarly authors who are preparing to pitch first books: should I mention the dissertation in my book proposal or not? I think the confusion around this arises from the fact that as an early career scholar you are constantly being told that publishers don’t want dissertations, yet at the same time it seems as if all the people you went to grad school with are publishing books based on their dissertations. With good presses too. So what’s the deal? Will you tank your chances with a press if you reveal that your project was once a dissertation? Are all your grad school buddies somehow concealing this fact from their editors in order to land their book contracts?
To Mention Your Dissertation or Not
To Mention Your Dissertation or Not
To Mention Your Dissertation or Not
Here’s a question that comes up frequently among scholarly authors who are preparing to pitch first books: should I mention the dissertation in my book proposal or not? I think the confusion around this arises from the fact that as an early career scholar you are constantly being told that publishers don’t want dissertations, yet at the same time it seems as if all the people you went to grad school with are publishing books based on their dissertations. With good presses too. So what’s the deal? Will you tank your chances with a press if you reveal that your project was once a dissertation? Are all your grad school buddies somehow concealing this fact from their editors in order to land their book contracts?