That's what I thought, thanks for reassuring me! the publishing house is De Gruyter and its an established encyclopedia with multiple volumes already published, so seems fine to me too. Regarding Inland Revenue, how on earth do you go about declaring a one off payment of less than £100?!

I have been contacted to write a small piece for a dictionary of artists (published in Germany). It is a reputable publishing house and I would be paid a small amount to write the text (only £50 or so). They have forwarded me the guidelines, sample writing etc. by email as well as a payment form asking for bank details and a 'tax number'. I'm assuming this tax number is an equivalent of the UK's NI number, but i'm really not sure. I've mentioned the article to a few people and their immediate reaction was 'I wouldnt send my details to someone I didn't know', but I suppose its no different than the information you would send a new employer, and seeing as they are based in Germany email makes sense. Just wondering if anyone else has had any paid experience writing for European journals/magazines/books and could lend me a bit of insight

Good luck with everything LarryDavid - let us know if there are any developments in the near future (I'd be very interested to know how you get on!)

Thanks for the help LarryDavid - I had been warned about the £1000 payment before, It isnt currently an option for me so its great to know there are publishing houses out there who dont get the author to pay upfront.

tim - I had thought about self publishing, but I have been encouraged by examiners and supervisors to try traditional publishing first, I realise publishers prefer established names but I do know of a few former students from my uni who have been successfully published in my field (N.I. history & arts) so I'm going to submit proposals and guage interest anyway.

this is something I have been wondering about - trouble is, I dont know where to begin!
It would be really helpful to speak to a former phd student who has had their thesis published as a book - any out there?

My questions might be daft - I wonder about payment/funding. Are you expected to fork out yourself to pay for publishing costs? Is this something the publishing house covers and then takes back from any profits? How difficult is it to get a grant or some funding to help if you do have to pay upfront??!!?!?!!

Also in some of the articles I have read online the proposals sent to publishers are quite specific - outlining the number of months it would take to convert the existing thesis into a more publishing friendly 'book' form, what is a realistic estimate for this? (I realise each thesis will be different).

My university had an 'official' amount of hours you were supposed to be on campus but to be honest I didn't really pay attention to them. We didn't have our own office - rather something called a research 'space' which I found too loud and to distracting to be of any real use. I spent most of my working time either at home or at the library or the public record office. My supervisor had no problem with this at all. In my experience if you make no fuss and do all training/paperwork that is asked of you on time there is no reason for the research office to look into your attendance nor contact you about it. Like I have said this is my experience. I know of another student who complained about her supervisor and was met with questions about her lack of hours on campus.

My university's 'encouraged' hand-in time is 3 years - so when the DEL funding stops. After this you get four months 'free' to finish up and if you exceed this you have to pay the university for each extension after this (I cant remember how long each extension is, I think its a few months.)

Nothing motivates like money, apparently.

Hi - sorry to disappoint but there is no secret recipe. I worked as hard as I could within the time I had. Obviously no one can work 100% of the time - thats impossible, but even when I was feeling most lazy, tired or annoyed I just tried to do something, some small bit of work, so it wouldnt be a completely wasted day. Failure or an extension wasnt an option for me, I knew I had to get the work done to get in to do the phd - I took the work and the deadline very seriously! As I said before it wasnt easy - I had to stay up and work late - which I HATE and am actually rubbish at - for I think two weeks, but once it was done I could sleep as much as I wanted!

Lilyme - stay positive, you can do it!

I had to do my MA dissertation, research and all, in less than 2 months a few years ago. I applied to do a phd and there were so many applications that particular year the requirements were brought up to include a MA (which was previously desirable but not essential for a PhD application). So rather than exclude me entirely and reapply next year the committee said finish your MA in July instead of September and you are accepted. So the time for my dissertation was cut in half - I wont lie, it was difficult and towards the end of writing I felt like I was losing my mind but I ended up with a distinction (how?!?)
I know your situation is different but I just wanted to show you that when push comes to shove it can be done. Have a hard look at the time you have left and the work you have to do. Dont be too hard on yourself for taking days off or procrastinating - everyone does it. But be honest with yourself when you really need to do work and get on and do it. Good luck in your work.

Congratulations! Good luck with your corrections, hopefully they are straight foreward & before you know it you'll be handing in your hard bound copies

You know I was just thinking yesterday why on earth readerinpikey was on this forum when every post submitted is so anti-PhD & academic research...
I guess some people just like to be controversial and you can hide behind a screen name on a forum so what better way to do it. Personally I think he/she is overcompensating for something. I may have a 'useless' PhD but I'm proud of myself and you know what - I might try to publish it if i get half a chance. Readerinpikey spews rubbish. Don't listen to it, I didn't.

Good luck for tomorrow! Fingers crossed everything will go well and you can relax after it - I think you are very sensible for taking the night off - have a bath, go for a walk, go to the cinema or treat yourself to a nice dinner and a movie in bed like I did the night before. Let us know how it goes!

I just wanted to wish you good luck! My viva was last friday and for the few days beforehand I felt exactly like you - but from your comments you sound like you have worked hard and your supervisors are probably confident you will pass. I know people say 'calm down you'll be fine' and it doesnt do much good - if you are a worrier you are going to worry, just know that in a week it will be all over and you will (hopefully) never have to do it again!

Congrats! You should be delighted - you've waited so long and deserve to finally have a good outcome.
Dont listen to those horrible people, universities are full of people who bitch and moan - that doesnt mean what they are saying is true. Your publications alone will prove the nay-sayers wrong. Good luck!

One of the biggest problems I faced was the unwillingness of certain institutions to grant me access to their collections & archives. A MASSIVE part of my thesis was primary research and I had no luck getting in to a large institution in my region of interest. To this day I still dont know what archives they have and if these would have been useful or not - but that is part of archival research I think. I was just lucky every other institution or library I contacted was more than happy to help.

I was worried my examiners would pick up on the fact that I hadn't used archives or information from the said (hard to get in to) institution but they didnt - the effort I put in to the rest of the primary research paid off and they didnt even comment on it, until after the viva when we were chatting and we all had a wee moan about how useless they have become.

I was also worried about whether the examiners would 'get' it - my argument, my topic, my whole approach. But they really did. My thesis was historical so I was worried they would push me more towards the criticial/theoricial (like one of my supervisors) but they got that is was a historical approach - which was valid in and of itself - the external even commented that alarm bells ring for him when theses are packed full of theoretical arguments that dont necessarily fit.

Also write up is a pain. It just is. A thesis, in the humanities anyway, is huge - mine is 417 pages long & the main body of the text is around 90000 words. You need to be somewhat organised to get through it. I created folders on my desktop for different chapters and put in images, papers and various chunks of text I had written up. If you havent decided on chapters yet I'd arrange by topic/sections or whatever makes most sense to you, but you need to do something to get through it. Hope this helps some of you!