I’ll show you how to start a Notion database from scratch to manage content for a book: how to do it, what fields to use, and a couple of basic filtered ‘views’. If you’re writing a book, I hope this helps you too!
![A duotoned dark purple and beige version of the Apple open book emoji, in front of a green circle background](https://www.producingparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/How-to-setup-Notion-for-book-content-management.jpg)
In this video (9min), I walk you through how to setup Notion for book content management – with the assumption that you already have some idea of what you’re writing about, and chapter titles in mind.
Here’s what’s covered:
0:14 Create new Notion page as a database in ‘table’ view
0:44 Populate the table with anticipated chapter headings
1:32 Differentiate chapter types (major, section and subsection)
2:28 Assign content numbering for sort order
3:25 Create ‘major chapters only’ view
4:27 Select best layout
4:42 Add content status field
4:57 Customise status options
6:38 Setup status board view
7:46 Setup ‘ready for review’ table
8:36 Add ‘Review notes / comments’ field
And checkout SizeUp for doing that quick 50-50 split view.
And here are some of the ‘views’ I recommend:
![Screenshot of a Notion database showing table view with order, name, heading type and status of each item](https://www.producingparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Notion-book-all-1024x319.png)
![Screenshot of a Notion database showing table view of 'major chapters' with just the 'Name' field visible](https://www.producingparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Notion-book-major-chapters.png)
![Screenshot of a Notion database showing board view with 'Not started', 'In progress - nearly done!' and 'Done - ready for review' lists](https://www.producingparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Notion-book-chapters-by-status.png)
![Screenshot of a Notion database showing a table view called 'Ready for review' showing 'Name' and 'Review notes / comments' fields](https://www.producingparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Notion-book-review-list.png)
Psst. Our new YouTube channel is alive and we’d love a couple of subscribers, if you’re interested in this sort of thing!