Thinking about transforming your dissertation into your first book? There are a number of resources out there to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph. It's important to remember that almost no dissertations are ever published as a book without a significant amount of work on the author's part to edit and refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee.
Resources that provide guidance on turning your dissertation into a book include:
From Dissertation to Book, Manage Your Career section in The Chronicle of Higher Education
by Leonard Cassuto, Professor of English, Fordham University
Germano, William. From Disseration to Book. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, as Open Access or via Proquest Digital Dissertations) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations.
Publishing Concerns : answering questions about repurposing your dissertation materials for other publications