Hello! This is Rei.
My book, "Notion Lifehacks," which was released last month, has already had a second printing decided…! (Thank you to everyone who purchased it!)
Actually, for this publication, I had a little interesting plan behind the scenes: "Create a Notion book with Notion." Lol
I was able to complete the book by using Notion for writing the manuscript and managing schedules with the editor.
This time, I'd like to show you the behind-the-scenes of the publication, along with actual Notion pages.
🎬 Director：Rei
✍🏻 Writer：Minokurumi
1. What is the publishing process?
First, let's briefly introduce the publishing process.
Publishing begins with a proposal. Once the proposal successfully passes the publisher's meeting, production finally begins.
Since this book introduces specific Notion use cases and templates, we started by creating the templates.
2. I tried to write, but...
With the plan decided and the templates ready, it was time to start writing.
Under the strategy of "creating a Notion book with Notion," I actually started writing the manuscript in Notion.
However, when I actually started writing the manuscript on a blank Notion page, I found myself asking various questions, and my pen stopped flowing smoothly:
"How many images can fit on one page?"
"What will the layout of images and text look like?"
"How much text should I write?"
3. Creating a template
So, I tried to imagine the finished book and work backward from there. I actually went to a bookstore, gathered book designs I wanted to use as reference, and conducted research.
Based on the research, I decided to create a manuscript template in Notion. Here is the actual template I made.
Having a template allowed me to imagine the finished product, and I gradually started to write more smoothly.
And by using this page as a template, I was able to successfully write explanations for a total of 36 templates!
4. The page becomes the document as is
Once the manuscript is finished, it's submitted to the editor. Notion allows you to invite other users to a page, so I invited the editor to the page and shared it on Notion.
And here is the finished design!
The page created in Notion became almost exactly the document design, resulting in a finish that was true to my vision.
Thanks to creating a template and writing according to it, there was almost no need to add images or adjust the text volume, which made checking the manuscript before submission a little easier. (It was still quite a lot of work... haha)
5. Schedule management also with Notion
Of course, the schedule for publication was also managed with Notion.
I invited writers, editors, and designers to the page where the manuscript was compiled, and we proceeded with the production.
In this way, we managed the writing schedule and the status of manuscript and image deliveries for each chapter of the book.
You can see that each item is the manuscript itself.
The manuscript schedule was viewed using this timeline view.
＜Summary＞My experience creating a Notion book with Notion
Using Notion for the publishing process truly amazed me with its flexibility.
- Not only for writing the manuscript, but also for creating layouts and embedding images directly within Notion.
- Ability to manage schedules linked to the manuscript.
- Capability to manage the status of each item, such as "manuscript" and "images."
- Possibility to invite editors to the page and share the manuscript directly.
Notion was such a significant presence that it supported this writing process to an extent that I wonder how I would have written the book without it.
So, this is "A Notion Book Written with Notion." If you haven't yet, please consider picking up a copy!
Here's "Todotion," the ultimate task management template achieved with Notion!
The complete 2-hour "Notion Master Course," where you can learn Notion from scratch through videos, is now available!
The book "Notion Lifehacks," which introduces 36 ways to use Notion, is also now on sale!
Tomorrow's article is from Chabesu. Stay tuned!
