Most Theses Are Never Read

How to Self-Publish Your Thesis on Amazon (Without Losing Your Mind)

What I’ve learned helping researchers turn academic work into real books.

Most researchers never expect their thesis or dissertation to become anything more than a PDF that lives on a university server forever. But after working with dozens of academics over the past year, I realised something surprising:

Many of them want their work to reach people — just not only other specialists.

The problem is simple: Academic writing is built for precision, not reach. Theses defend ideas… but they don’t share them.

So I started documenting what actually works when a researcher wants to turn their thesis into a book that normal humans can read — and how to publish it on Amazon without getting crushed by the process.

Here’s the clearest 5-step method I’ve found.

1. Rewrite for a different audience (not for examiners)

A thesis is a fortress: dense, defensive, and meticulously referenced. A book is a bridge: clear, narrative, and designed to be followed.

The biggest shift researchers struggle with is audience. You’re no longer writing for two examiners. You’re writing for:

practitioners

curious readers

policy makers

industry specialists

or even general nonfiction readers

If you don’t change the voice, the book won’t land.

2. Extract the core argument (the 1 big idea)

Every strong nonfiction book has a “single thesis” (ironically). And it's almost always buried somewhere inside the academic version.

A simple way to find it: If you had to explain your thesis in 30 seconds at a dinner table, what would you say?

That becomes your book’s spine.

3. Turn chapters into a narrative flow

Academic chapters are often structured around:

methodology

literature

theoretical frameworks

findings

Readers do not want that.

A nonfiction book works better like this:

A question

A problem

A surprising insight

Stories and examples

A takeaway

The research stays — but the delivery changes.

4. Clean up citations and add real-world context

You don’t need to delete references, but you do need to reduce them. Nonfiction readers want:

clarity

explanation

why it matters

what they can do with the insight

Citations are seasoning, not the meal.

5. Publish on Amazon (the easy way)

Most researchers get stuck here, not during rewriting.

The simplest path I recommend:

Format in Google Docs / Word

Export to PDF

Upload via Amazon KDP

Choose paperback + eBook

Write metadata that real readers can understand

Publish and share with your network

If you want distribution beyond Amazon, Draft2Digital and StreetLib do most of the work for you.

Why I wrote this:

I run ConvertMyResearch.com, where I help academics turn their research into reader-friendly nonfiction books. This guide is simply the process that has worked consistently for researchers who want their ideas to reach beyond their field.

If you’re one of those people — I hope this helps.