The Thesis Whisperer is a not for profit blog which is maintained by Dr Inger Mewburn in her own time and with her own money.

If you like what we do, you can support the Thesis Whisperer in two ways:

1) Buy a range of books to help you with your thesis through our Amazon affiliates store.

Here I have curated the best books on doing a PhD, writing and managing an academic career. Only books that I use and keep on my own book shelf make it to this list. Each time you purchase a book through the store I get a small donation. I use this money to buy more books to review and inform Thesis Whisperer posts.

2) Sign up to find out more about my upcoming books!

I’m really excited about my upcoming book “How to be an academic: The Thesis Whisperer reveals all” which will be published through New South Press in September 2017. If you’re interested in hearing more about this book before it’s published, you can sign up to my ‘how to be an academic mailing list.

I’m currently writing a book with my excellent colleagues Shaun Lehmann and Katherine Firth of the Research Voodoo blog. The book is called “Writing trouble: why it happens and how to fix it. A practical guide for academics and graduate students”. We have a writing trouble mailing list to keep everyone informed on the progress and offer sneak peeks.

If you’re interested in my more ‘serious’ academic work, check out the upcoming book I have edited with Deborah Lupton and Pat Thomson. The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education. Published through Routledge. For a taste of the book here is a book chapter I wrote about PhD student blogging with Pat Thomson.

3) Buy the original (really cheap!) book of the blog.

I use profits from the books I author to pay for hosting, upgrades and technology which support the production of the blog.

The first Thesis Whisperer book “How to tame your PhD” is available from Amazon on ebook for $5.99 US (around 4 pounds sterling and $7.50 Australia); a price point carefully calibrated to match the cost of a cup of coffee and a piece of cake in Australia.

If print is your thing, there’s a paperback version available from Lulu.com for $14.95  (around 10 pounds sterling and $17USD) – a price I hope will fit into most PhD student budgets. It’s a short book, around 25,000 words, but contains what I think is the most pertinent advice for actually producing your thesis or dissertation in the shortest time possible. If you are an ANU student, you can buy copies of the paper version at the ANU CO-op.

What is the book about?

I compiled this book because owning a blog is like having a large and very untidy attic; posts become submerged as the blog rolls on. Sometimes I have to rummage through the boxes to find things readers ask me for. Compiling these posts into a book was a way of ordering what I have written in such a way that echoes the process of writing a thesis: start, middle and end.

I chose some of my favourite posts for this book. Others I chose because, at the time, they seemed to resonate with you, the readers.

I believe in the advice in this book – because I followed it myself. I did do my thesis in 3 years while working two days a week for most of it – and won my faculty award at the end. On those two days I wasn’t doing my thesis I taught PhD students. This experience deeply informed my teaching style. I believe that a thesis can be written in 3 years and that it doesn’t have to kill you.

The Thesis Whisperer is not for profit. All the proceeds will be ploughed into upgrades to the site and new projects. I do enough of you will find the book to be a worthwhile alternative to your next coffee so that Thesiswhisperer.com can pay for it’s own domain registration next year!

You can download ‘Tame your PhD’ from the US Amazon store here.

If you are in the UK, you can find ‘Tame your PhD’ in the UK Amazon store

I have put the book on Amazon without digital rights management (DRM) so that you can convert it into any format that suits you using a program like Calibre. I would prefer people not to pirate it, but I suppose they can if they want to. I hope you wont.

You don’t have to own a Kindle or any ereader to access the contents of this book; you can use the free Kindle app to read it on your computer, phone or tablet. I hope you enjoy it!

Other books by/with Inger

How to be an academic – forthcoming, New South, September 2017

Postgraduate Study in the Australia: Surviving and Succeeding