Publish Dissertation

My book can be found by doing a title search for “Aristotle on Happiness,” on Amazon.com. I’m SO excited!

I really really want to get this done. Why is it so difficult? Being a faculty is of course an excuse, but how come other people can do this but I am still struggling?? I need to focus focus and focus!

I sent a copy of my dissertation to one of my undergraduate advisors. Got back to me today with two pages of really helpful comments and suggestions. That’s the most constructive criticisms and suggestions I’ve received on my dissertation so far. Besides this advisor, only my dissertation committee has offered criticisms, very few of which I can take off running. Anyways, this professor offered me great direction. When the semester is over and I don’t have to worry about teaching, I shall have to start working on taking the material from my dissertation to see what I can do with it. I may not be publishing the dissertation itself, but that’s okay.

My Doctoral advisor doesn’t want to let my dissertation go through until it is of such a high quality that it is publishable. This is a bit of a tall order. Very few dissertations, at least in philosophy, get published. And, oftentimes Doctoral advisors in philosophy are trying to get their students graduated more than anything else. My hope is, in accomplishing what my advisor desires, I will in fact be able to get my dissertation published. Anyone from Oxford University Press reading this?!

OK, maybe a major one for me. This morning, I wrote the first new words in over 2 years on my dissertation-cum-book. The words are crap - more like an e-mail than a manuscript - but I’m getting ideas down.

Still afraid it’ll suck, though.

I took the usual year off after defending my diss in 2003, but now it’s been two years, and I’m out of excuses. I’ve done the research (OK, like most people, I wouldn’t say no to just a little more research!), and am just finishing up a proposal that will serve as the basis for grant-writing, and for publishers.

This is going to require more than cosmetic revision, unfortunately. I’d like to have drafts of two fully revised chapters by the end of the year, plus a working introduction.

I’d also like to think of a snappy title. Any ideas? (C’mon… it’s more fun if I don’t tell you the topic!)

I finished my Ph.D. in 2002 (degree 2003) and I have the faculty job so many of my peers have trouble finding, but I can’t get it together to revise the damn thing and get it published.