Number of celebratory drinks: lots!
Money to be made as best selling author: er…not much!
Having my first monograph (an academic book written on my own) in my hand is a most exciting feeling. It makes all the stresses of writing, editing and indexing the thing worthwhile, certainly a very proud moment. And I haven’t spotted any mistakes yet either, which is one of the greatest fears of an author – that these errors only come to light after it’s too late! Publishing monographs is an essential part of an academic’s activities these days, it is hard to find a job in this competitive environment without one and the RAE has meant that material not necessarily ready or suitable for the public gaze is being churned out in order to meet it’s demands.
A great bit of advice I received when I started my PhD was that if you are thinking of an academic career in the future write your PhD with publication in mind. Be able to easily turn it into a book, in other words think of it as a monograph rather than a thesis/dissertation right from the start. Some subjects are naturally more attractive to publishers than others, so you may even have to consider that when choosing a topic in the first place. Academic publishing is in quite a tight spot financially so you have to really be able to prove to the publishing houses that your idea is marketable.
Because your monograph won’t be produced in large numbers, the price will have to be high to recoup the costs, and this will mean it won’t fly off the shelves! Make sure you ask all your friends to get their university libraries to buy a copy, you probably won’t get many personal sales if your book is £50 plus a copy. However, it’s fair to say that this sort of writing isn’t done to make a profit but for academics to show their peers the fruits of their research. And that can be incredibly rewarding!
