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3 by waybread
I just checked the University of Kent library catalogue: it doesn't seem to be listed yet by title or author. Sometimes it takes a while to accession a new dissertation. Garry, if you know the author's department, probably people could write to him c/o the department. It is not unheard of for authors to e-mail somebody their entire dissertation as an attachment. Brockbank's' departmental address would be on-line.

5 by GarryP
It turns out that there is some discussion going on at the moment about the best way to make James' thesis, and perhaps other astrologically-relevant theses, available. Any thoughts? For instance, what do you think would be reasonable to pay for a download? Would you be willing to splash out for a well-produced book?

6 by jventura
GarryP wrote:It turns out that there is some discussion going on at the moment about the best way to make James' thesis, and perhaps other astrologically-relevant theses, available. Any thoughts? For instance, what do you think would be reasonable to pay for a download? Would you be willing to splash out for a well-produced book?
Hello Garry,

some good points there! If the thesis is good enough maybe a printed book would carry greater value than a downloaded copy. Maybe the author should consider better what he wants do with it..

From my point of view, almost every thesis (be it PhD, MSc, ..) are never good enough for publishing for a broader and unspecialized audience. So if James is considering publishing it as a book, he probabily has to rewrite many parts of it.

My sugestion is a book, a good one because we have a lack of technical, specialized, peer-reviewed, deep books out there, with citations for other works (as PhD works usually do), with a simple approach, and not expensive..

Jo?o Ventura

7 by Mark
Hello Garry,

You are clearly very enthusiastic about the work. However, for outsiders like myself it is really hard to know what to make of this without even a basic synoposis of the work summarised here. This would assist myself and others in making an informed decision whether we were interested enough to read the work and if so in what format we would be willing to pay to read it.

Thanks

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

8 by GarryP
Hi Mark,

Well, in a few words, James' thesis is that it is necessary to involve 'non-human agency' in order to explain astrology - in other words it argues for a view of astrology as divination. I'll leave it for James to write his own promotional material when he's decided what to do with the thesis, but I think it would be fair to say that his approach can be characterised as starting from first principles and developing a rationally grounded argument.

Anyone who just can't wait for the Brockbank Experience, there's an article by him here: http://www.astrozero.co.uk/astroscience/brock.htm

Cheers,
Garry

10 by Mark
Hello Garry,

Thanks for the link. I do hope the work does eventually comes out in book form. A PHD is interesting but will have negligible impact outside a small selective readership.

I am very intrigued what James means by 'non-human agency'. Any hints? :wink:

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

11 by waybread
Garry, there are companies that specialize in publishing books in electronic format only. Some are vanity presses, others a bit more serious (for example, http://www.bod.com/publishing-a-book.html .) With the former kind, little or no revision would be required, but then an average reader wouldn't want some of the material that a dissertation committee requires.

A lot depends upon how James Brockbank construes his career. If he is in or would like to obtain a university position, he is probably best advised to locate an acdemic press for a somewhat revised edition of his dissertation. Or, he could break it up into separate scholarly articles. He will need these to establish his academic credentials.

Probably at this point a good thing for him to do would be to check out web sites of publishers of books similar to what he has written. They have guidelines on how to submit a prospectus, and he can simply talk to an acquisitions editor. But his supervisor has probably covered this ground with him already.

Thanks for the link!

12 by GarryP
Thanks, everyone, for some interesting suggestions and feedback here.

Mark, your question made me realise that I'd omitted the words 'The Responsive Cosmos' from James' title when I first posted - now corrected. So that's what he means by non-human agency! I get the impression that the possible interpretations and implications of this will take up quite a bit of space in the thesis. James isn't a dogmatic sort of fellow so I imagine he'll define it in a very broad way. Perhaps I'll have more to say once I've read the thesis.

Cheers,
Garry
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