The Stages of Revising a Dissertation into a Book

As an academic writing coach and developmental editor, I have worked with scores of humanists and social scientists on successfully revising their dissertations into books. A first step in revision is understanding the distinctiveness of the academic monograph as a genre, particularly its requirements in terms of scope, voice, and through-line. In this article, I describe the common stages of reconceptualizing the project and revising the text, as well as the strategies I have found effective in helping authors move through the stages as adeptly and efficiently as possible. Drafting a book proposal is a challenging but often key step. Later stages include incorporating new research, revising and expanding some chapters and possibly cutting one or more, and soliciting feedback on the new articulations of ideas from colleagues. At every stage of this iterative process, authors need to have patience and compassion for themselves.