Chances of academically publishing a book without professional degree I have been considering publishing the book I am writing with Springer; specifically under the series Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics (or any related series). I believe the contents of the book would be a great addition to the related content published by Springer and I also believe it would be popular amongst both mathematicians and physicists. The issue [I believe I face] is that I lack a degree. The contents of the book do not necessarily warrant a degree, for the book is mostly on special functions and their employment. I should also mention that the book is about 90% complete (perhaps this increases my chances of publication?).
This page is what I am most concerned about. I fail to be able to fill out the &quot;Affiliation&quot; and &quot;Personal website&quot; sections, for I have neither; i.e., I lack a degree and a website. Now for the question:
Will lacking a degree in mathematics or physics prevent my book from being published?
And a follow up:
Would &quot;hobbyist&quot; be an appropriate title for the section labeled &quot;Title&quot;?
I am asking such questions to gauge whether or not I should even submit my proposal. Thank you!
As someone who has served as referee for math textbook proposals for reputed academic publishers, I can tell you that if your proposal were sent to me, I could not care less about whether you have a degree or what your title is. I would care about the content of your proposal and whether it convinced me that you can write a high quality, correct, and interesting book that serves a need for students and researchers of mathematics.
However. You should have no illusions that convincing me of such a thing is an easy standard to meet. It’s not. It wouldn’t be easy even for a professional mathematician with many publications under their belt, and I would expect that it would be doubly difficult for someone who doesn’t have formal training in mathematics at a level equivalent to at least a PhD, let alone an undergraduate degree.
But as I said, the lack of a degree by itself would not be a problem for me.