Generate Project Structure

Overview

For writing a book, an organized directory structure helps manage content, references, and publishing formats efficiently. Below is a recommended structure:

book-project/
│── manuscript/
│   ├── chapters/
│   │   ├── 01-introduction.md
│   │   ├── 02-chapter.md
│   │   ├── ...
│   ├── front-matter/
│   │   ├── toc.md
│   │   ├── preface.md
│   │   ├── foreword.md
│   │   ├── acknowledgments.md
│   ├── back-matter/
│   │   ├── about-the-author.md
│   │   ├── appendix.md
│   │   ├── bibliography.md
│   │   ├── faq.md
│   │   ├── glossary.md
│   │   ├── index.md
│   ├── figures/
│   ├── tables/
│   ├── references.bib
│── assets/
│   ├── covers/
│   ├── figures/
│       ├── diagrams/
│       ├── infographics/
│── config/
│   ├── metadata.yaml
│   ├── styles.css
│   ├── template.tex
│── output/
│   ├── book.pdf
│   ├── book.epub
│   ├── book.mobi
│   ├── book.docx
│── scripts/
│   ├── full_export_book.py
│   ├── update_metadata_values.py
│   ├── init_book_project.py
│   ├── ...
│── LICENSE
│── pyproject.toml
│── README.md

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📜 Explanation

1. manuscript/
   Contains the main content organized into:

   • chapters/, front-matter/, and back-matter/ (Markdown or LaTeX)

2. assets/
   Stores images and visual material like:

   • Cover images

   • Diagrams and infographics

3. config/
   Project configuration files:

   • metadata.yaml holds book metadata

   • styles.css and optional template.tex for styling

4. output/
   All exported formats will be saved here

5. scripts/
   Automation tools for exporting and managing metadata.
   🆕 Use init_book_project.py to create the structure.
   ⚠️ The older shell script create_project_structure.sh is now deprecated.

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🆕 ✅ Initializing the Project

To create this structure automatically:

poetry run init-book-project

This Python script:

• Creates all required directories and base files

• Initializes metadata.yaml, metadata_values.json

• Adds a JSON config for image generation workflows

📘 Read more here:
👉 📦 Project Initialization – Wiki

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📂 Customizing the Structure

To add new directories (e.g. exercises/), you can:

1. Edit the Python script scripts/init_book_project.py

2. Add custom paths to the directories list

For example:

directories = [
    "manuscript/exercises",
    ...
]

Then run:

poetry run init-book-project

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