Our common goal is the publication of your book. Before your book is published, there are numerous internal steps in the publishing process.
To ensure timely publication, these steps should be planned and scheduled in good time, so don't be surprised if your editor contacts you during the writing process! Don’t worry, your editor just wants to make sure that the company can plan its internal resources for your book.
Below you can explore these steps, along with some helpful tools and tips to aid you in writing your manuscript.
How to prepare your manuscript
With these clear manuscript guidelines and easy-to-follow checklists, submitting your finished work couldn’t be easier. We also have some writing advice from authors on our blog.
Once you've submitted your final manuscript, our team of experts will work on the formatting and typesetting. They will transform your work into a print book, an eBook, or our own digital format, MyCopy.
Writing your manuscript in your native language
You want to publish with Springer Nature in English or German, but you have written your manuscript in another language? Or you prefer writing your current manuscript in your mother tongue?
Your English or German language skills are fine but you lack the time or funding for a translation?
Springer Nature offers a free auto-translation service.
Accessibility
At Springer Nature, we’re committed to Accessibility and we want to help you make your research accessible too. Many factors regarding accessibility are handled by Springer Nature, but we request you to take some actions as well to help make your research accessible.
Alternative Text When preparing your manuscript, it is recommended that you write alternative texts (also known as alt texts) for all figures, illustrations and for tables, which you include in an image format.
- Alternative text is a brief and objective description of the content of an image and/or of the purpose it serves in a digital format. Alt text is crucial for individuals using screen reader technology, as well as for those trying to comprehend the content of an image in case it doesn't load..
- Alt text is not the same as a caption, which typically provides information that is not already in the visual element itself.
- For more tips on how to write good alt text, please visit the Poet Tool.
Requirements for Figures When differentiating elements in charts and graphs, do not just change the color, also change shapes and patterns, or provide other visual differentiation like direct segment labels.
How to Include Alternative Texts in the Manuscript Alternative texts should not be included in the body text to avoid any possibility of confusion with the captions or with the main text. Please include a separate table per chapter in which you make the assignment of figures and the alternative texts clearly.
Multimedia enhancements
Springer Nature offers a number of multimedia tools that you can add to your book:
- Video & audio: Integrate video and audio files into your book to convey specific content in its most suitable form. Both media types can either be streamed online from our electronic book versions or accessed by your readers via the SN More Media app for mobile devices. Learn more about video and audio.
- Digital flashcards: Create digital flashcards for your readers, which can be accessed by your readers via a web and mobile micro-learning app. This way your readers can learn and test their comprehension and better perform on exams. Learn more about digital flashcards.
- Programming code: Programming code can easily be accessed from your book product page if you use one of our GitHub repositories.
- Supplemental files: It is possible to attach supplemental electronic files (like PDFs, Excel sheets, etc.) to individual chapters of your book.
- Lecturer material: If you want to provide additional material only available to lecturers (like PowerPoint presentations or solution manuals), you can use our restricted lecturer material service.
ORCID - your personal identifier
Make sure to use your unique, personal, persistent identifier (an iD) that distinguishes you from every other researcher. ORCID also enables organizations to link to your affiliations and works – including your publications - to your iD, ensuring you receive proper credit for your work. Learn more about ORCID.
Which templates/macros should I use?
To help you in structuring your manuscript you will have access to Word and LaTeX templates for books, as well as for contributed books. See our manuscript guidelines.
Once it is well structured, the production teams will work on your manuscript to be in proper Springer Nature style.
How to improve search engine optimisation (SEO)
Interesting fact: Over two thirds of our website visitors come from search engines. This shows how critical search engine optimization (SEO) is!
To make sure your book's homepage and content appears at the top of the results list of an appropriate keyword search, Springer Nature constantly lay emphasis on the further optimisation of our product pages.
Check out some SEO tips for book authors
How to revise your thesis into a book
Springer Nature will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis.
This includes those that have been made publicly available according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification. Theses should be nominated for publication by heads of department at internationally leading institutions.
Prospective authors should bear in mind that every PhD thesis will need to undergo rigorous revision in order to be published as a monograph with our press. To help with this revision, our editors have put together the following advice:
How do you go about planning the revisions, and when should you start?
Be aware that transforming your dissertation into a publishable book is a complex process that will take time and require some careful planning. Most authors take at least a year to complete a PhD-based book; however, this timeline may be extended if the book requires fresh data and new research.
You should only start working on your book proposal after you’ve submitted your thesis, defended it successfully, and completed your PhD program. This will allow you to look at the thesis with a fresh eye and to take into account any helpful feedback from your examiners as you develop your proposal.
Consider all the available formats. Depending on the subject and breadth of the topic, some proposals may develop into a full-length authored book (approximately 90,000 words), whilst for others a shorter format like Palgrave Pivot (25,000 to 50,000 words) may be suitable – for example a single-case or single-country study once they have been extracted out of any redundant or unnecessary content.
What’s the difference between the PhD Thesis and an Authored Book?
- Audience: While a PhD thesis is meant to be read and scrutinized by your supervisors and examiners, the readership of your book will extend to the broader academic community, scholars and practitioners, who may not be specialized in or even familiar with your research topic.
- Rationale: The motivation behind writing your book will need to be rethought to reflect the expectations of your new audience and should be clearly explained in the introduction. The objective is not to convince your examiners that you have what it takes to complete a PhD, but to make sure the book is coherent and your conclusions are persuasive.
- Structure: Your introductory chapter should also offer readers a concise ‘preview’ of the various chapters. The conclusion should summarize your key findings and identify avenues for further research. Look over the table of contents in books which you would consider as related literature or competitors. How does their structure differ from the structure of your thesis? You should simplify and optimize your table of contents to present the material in a logical and accessible fashion.
- Length: Monographs are typically much shorter than PhD theses. Separate chapters about the review of literature and research methodologies may be essential in a thesis, but will not be necessary in a book, as readers and experts in your field will be familiar already with both. References to the relevant literature can be moved to the endnotes of individual chapters, and what is not pertinent to advancing your own arguments can be removed. The methodology chapter should be reduced and merged with the introduction or omitted altogether.
Tips for writing your textbook
- Prerequisite knowledge: What topics or concepts should readers already be familiar with? Do you need to review these or provide further explanation?
- Self-contained: Students typically want a one-stop resource so you should try to ensure that as much of the information that student needs is presented in your textbook.
- Modular chapters: Students will likely dip in and out of the textbook rather than read it linearly from start to finish so try to make chapters self-contained where possible, so they can be understood out of context of the rest of the textbook.
- Succinct and to the point: Keep focused on the course that the textbook is supporting and the topics that need to be covered. Avoid including less relevant topics, very advanced topics, explanations of concepts that students should already understand, and any other content that may not actually be useful to the student.
- Didactic elements: Elements such as exercises, case studies, definitions and so on help break up the main chapter text and make it more engaging. Consider what didactic elements you want to include before you start writing so you can ensure that the main chapter text provides the right information to support the didactic element e.g. that a concept is adequately explained in order to answer an exercise question, or that theory is suitably described before a corresponding case study is given
- Writing style: Textbooks can have a lighter, more conversational writing style than monographs and references works. Try to use active rather than passive sentences e.g. “It is believed by some physicians that…” becomes “Some physicians believe that…”
- Online resources: If you have exercises, consider writing a solutions manual for instructors so they don’t have to work out all the solutions themselves. Are there data sets, spreadsheets, programs, etc., that would be useful for students to access so they can test concepts themselves? The same copyright issues apply for online resources as for the print book – see Obtaining Permissions for further information
- Write a helpful Introduction: Explain who the textbook is for and how it should be used. Confirm the level of the students (e.g. 3rd year undergraduates). Confirm the course that the textbook supports. List any prerequisites or assumptions you have made about the student’s background knowledge. Explain how the textbook could be used. If applicable, identify core must-read chapters and chapters that are more advanced or optional; provide short summaries of the chapters (just a sentence or two)
- Test your material as you write: Use your draft chapters as part of your lecture course and see how students respond to it. Do they understand the concepts you are explaining? Are they able to complete any exercises?
