Introduction
Planning, building and successfully marketing a book is a
complex venture, with many moving parts. It requires a la-
ser-like focus on a specific set of problems or needs that a
particular audience has. It requires some serious planning
that linear thinking tools like word processing and note-
taking tools really don’t help you much with.
Mind mapping software can help.
The same principles can help whether you’re writing a
book, a white paper, a technical report or other large, com-
plex document. The important thing to remember is that
there is more than just the structure of the document at
stake. You need to clearly define your audience for whom
you’re writing, what’s your objectives are for writing this
document and How are you going to successfully launch it
into the world.
There’s actually a whole constellation of things you need
to think about to create and sell a successful book.
This illustrated guidebook explores 24 ways that mind
mapping software can help you streamline and enhance
your book planning, writing and promotion processes.
Table of contents

4 BOOK DESIGN & PLANNING 18 Manage your research

5 Create a high-level plan for your book structure 19 Create an idea repository
6 Explore alternate storylines 20 Not sure what to do with an idea? “Table” it.
7 Define the “must-haves” for your topic 21 PRODUCTION
8 This is a topic note 22 Export your book outline to Microsoft Word
9 Create a plan for each chapter 23 Capture extended information in topic notes
10 Research competing books 24 “Black out” topics when done writing about them
11 Define and analyze your ideal audience 25 Use icons and symbols to manage your writing
12 Identify your book platform goals 26 Create reminders for yourself
13 Map out character profiles and relationships 27 MARKETING
14 BOOK RESEARCH 28 Develop a marketing plan for your book
15 Create a mind map to contain your research 29 Develop a “pitch list”
16 Visually organize your research 30 Create an editorial calendar map
17 Use links to keep track of all your research sources 31 About the author

Cover photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

All mind maps created for this guide were produced with MindManager 21 for Windows
Headline

BOOK DESIGN &

PLANNING
Create a high-level plan for the structure of your book

Start with a purpose statement. What is the reason for What does the arc of the story look like at a high level,
your book’s proposed existence? What is your goal in writ- from beginning to end?
ing it? Who do you hope to entertain, educate or per-
suade?

What is the plot of your book? Is there protagonist? A jour-

ney (hero’s or otherwise) that the main character will go
through in this book?
Explore alternate storylines

Are there several potential storylines your book could fol- creating a dense morass of written words from which you
low? Map each of them out to see where they lead - before must painfully extricate yourself.
you start writing. That way, you can make decisions about
the book’s focused and direction while you’re still at the Because mind mapping software gives you complete free-
“skeletal” stage of thinking through its content. dom to arrange and rearrange topics at will, you can even
combine elements of several potential storylines into one.
Mind mapping software is also useful for playing "what if?" That’s powerful!
with the micro level of your book, exploring different ver-
sions of events in your story, for example. Or perhaps
you’ve gotten stuck at one point of your story. You can rain-
storm multiple ideas to resolve your impasse without
Define the “must-haves” for a thorough treatment of your subject
What are the “musts” in terms of content? What aspects
of your subject must be included in this book? Of course,
this should be based upon the audience needs you identi-
fied earlier.
This is a brainstorming exercise. That means your focus
should be to capture as many ideas as possible, without
worrying about how they’re organized. You can do that
later.
As they take form, these major areas of focus can evolve
into chapter headings. in this way, the structure of your
book can gradually emerge from the information needs
you’ve identified.
Key topic 3 contains a detailed text note, as denoted by
the small icon below it. On the next page, we’ll look at the
contents of it. You’ll see the incredible amount of for-
metting freedom you have.
Topic notes are the perfect place to capture extended
notes. They reduce clutter in your mind map but are still
only a click away.
This is a topic note
Create a plan for each chapter

Once you’ve mapped out the overall structure of your

book, use branches or separate, linked mind maps to plan
the content of each chapter.
- What will it cover?
- What essential information does your audience need to
know about this aspect of your subject?
- What stories will you share to help illuminate this aspect
of your book’s topic?
- What supporting data or information should you include? your book a solid structure and flow, which will save you a
How-to tips? Additional resources or citations for authorita- lot of time when you start writing.
tive works you’ve mentioned?
Your chapter mind maps will give each main section of A solid book outline is like having your book half-written!
Research competing books

Before you begin writing your book, you need to check out
competing titles on Amazon.com.
• Who has already written about this or closely related
topics?
• What aspects of your topic do they cover?
• What is their opinion or point of view on your topic?

Use your competitor mind map to take notes on each book the ways in which you will differentiate your coverage of
title you uncover. Think through and make decisions about the topic of your book.
Define and analyze the needs of your ideal audience
One of the key steps you must take before writing your
book is to clearly define its target audience.
• Who are you writing it for?
• Who will gain the greatest value from reading it?
• What are their challenges, needs and aspirations?
• What worries keep them awake at night?
• What do they wish they could accomplish?
• What do they need to be able to do that your book
could help them with?
You may even want to conduct a handful of interviews or
polls with a sampling of people who represent your target
audience to learn firsthand what makes them tick. One
way to do this is to conduct polls on social media.
Add everything you know and have learned about your tar-
get audience to a persona mind map. This will help you to
focus the content of your book on their deepest needs.
Identify your book platform goals
In many cases, your book is only the beginning. Often,
authors spin up the content of the book into an online
course, podcast series, speaking engagements or other
products. Perhaps the book you’re working on could be-
come the first of a themed series.
One friend of mine who has done this masterfully well is
Stephen Shapiro. He has parlayed his book, Invisible
Solutions, into a popular podcast, a video book and much
more.
Map out the long-term vision for your publishing platform,
including all the ways you can profit from it.
Map out character profiles and relationships
If you’re writing a fiction book, create mind maps that de-
scribe the characteristics, beliefs, mindset, motivations
and quirks of each of your characters. It will become a re-
source you can refer back to when you’re writing, so you
describe them consistently throughout your book.
Everything you write in your book is in relationship with
other elements - such as other characters, other events or
other concepts. Mapping it out can help you to clarify the
relationships between all the pieces so your story is more
complete, cohesive and compelling.
Headline

BOOK
RESEARCH
Create a mind map to contain your research

No matter what type of book you’re writing, chances are Create first level topics to create a rough classification of
it’s going to require a mountain of resources and research. your research findings around major topics or themes. You
A mind map can help you to keep it all organized, so you can always restructure them as needed. Capture every-
can find and utilize it easily. thing now, sort and distill it later.
Visually organize your research
Consider using icons or symbols to visually classify infor-
mation and make it easier to skim your mind map. For
example, questions could be denoted using a question
mark icon. Information you’ve reviewed and dismissed, but
which you still want to keep in your body of research, could
have a thumbs-down icon attached to them.
The legend helps you keep track of the meaning of each
symbol you use. Set it up as a floating topic in your mind
map. Also note that you can use topic colors and shapes to
help you visually organize your research.
Use links to keep track of all your research sources
Web page link
File link
Use links to keep track of all of your resources, whether
they’re part of your personal knowledge base or are from
external websites.
Remember, links can be URLs to resources outside of your
mind map. They can also be links to files on your comput-
er, or they can be added as attachments. In either case,
links are a powerful way to organize your resources and
keep them one click away!
Manage your research

Create and manage tasks

Notes on next steps

Unless you have superpowers I don’t know about, chances
are your book research is going to stretch out over a period
of weeks or months. That means it’s absolutely essential
to add topics and other enhancements to you research
map that help you re-orient yourself each time you return
to work on it.
For example, you can make notes to yourself about re-
search you still need to conduct, expert sources you still
need to interview and questions for which you still need
answers.
Create an idea repository
Many writers describe the phenomenon of having unrelat-
ed ideas pop into their heads while they’re writing - such a
great inspiration for their next book. If you don’t do some-
thing with them, they become an open mental loop in your
mind and can interrupt your creative flow. But if you just
mentally push them aside and refocus your mind on writ-
ing, you risk losing some potentially valuable ideas.
Don’t let these inspirations go to waste. Create a separate
idea repository map to capture them when you think of
them. That will get them out of your active memory so you
can stay focused on the critical task at hand - writing your
book!
Not sure what to do with an idea? “Table” it.

While you're writing, an idea that MAY be related to your

book pops into your head. Happens all the time, amiright?
Or perhaps you dreamed up a plot idea that you’re unde-
cided about. Don’t just let it get away. Capture it in a float-
ing map topic - unconnected from your mind map, but still
visible on the periphery of your mind map canvas.

You can make decisions about what to do with this
“tabled” idea later. Like some of the other ideas we’ve dis-
cussed, a floating topic sends your brain a clear signal: “I
don’t need to think about this right now.” Designating it as
a floating topic enables you to refocus your mind on the
task at hand.
If you decide to use it, you can always drag and drop it into
an appropriate spot in your main map whenever you're
ready. See how that works?
Headline

PRODUCTION
Export your book outline to Microsoft Word
Most modern mind mapping software programs enable
you to export your mind maps to Microsoft Word. This ena-
bles you to create and refine the structure and details of
your book in skeletal form first - figuring out what’s miss-
ing, what needs to be clarified and what’s superfluous.
You can then painlessly move it to Word, where topics and
subtopics are automatically converted into heading types
and topic notes become paragraph test.
As my friend Roger C. Parker explains it, planning your
book in a mind map gives you an incredible amount of mo-
mentum to start writing your book and can save you count-
less hours of time during the actual writing process.
Capture extended information in topic notes
As you’re laying out the structure of your book in a mind
map, your brain will undoubtedly be working overtime, sug-
gesting ideas for chapter introductions, plot ideas and
much more. Depending on the type of book you’re writing,
some of your research may be in the form of emails or so-
cial media messages. Don’t let those ideas disappear.
Capture them in topic notes. That enables you to keep
track of these ideas, but keeps them out of the way so
they don’t clutter your thinking and planning.
Depending upon the mind mapping application you use,
some may only accommodate plain text. But most pro-
grams enable you to do basic text formatting (bold, italics,
font sizes and colors) and organization (billeted and num-
bered lists). In other words, if you need some place to
store extended information, topic notes are an invaluable
writing companion.
Finally, as we discussed earlier, topic notes get turned into
paragraph text when you export them to Microsoft Word.
That means they can give you a valuable head start on
your writing process!
“Black out” topics when you’re done writing about them

This writing tip was inspired by Austin Kleon’s well-known
“blackout poetry” art, in which he takes a newspaper clip-
ping and uses a black marker to obscure al but a handful
of words on the page, which convey a short idea or con-
cept that’s unrelated to the original news story.
need to write. After you finish a section, why not recollect
their corresponding topics and subtopics black - or a differ-
ent color - to denote that you no longer need to pay atten-
tion to them. I think this is a simple but brilliant writing aid!

The idea is this: As you’re writing, using your mind map to

guide the process, you need a way to see, at a glance,
which parts you’ve completed and which ones you still
Use icons and symbols to help you manage your writing

Like topic colors, mind map icons and symbols can be

added to topics to give you valuable, at a glance, context
about the status of your writing. For example, you can use
them To provide yourself with “start here,” “in process,”
“done” and other progress or status indicators.
Create reminders for yourself

Not every topic of your book outline map needs to be relat-

ed to book content. You can also use map topics to give
yourself visual reminders or writing prompts. Another way
to do this is to note your action items as topic call outs.
Headline

MARKETING
 Develop a marketing plan for your book

Linked mind map

Successful book marketing begins well before the book is

finished. You need to build visibility, support and excite-
ment for it ahead of time, so when your book is finally pub-
lished, your target audience is primed and ready to pur-
chase it. You can lay out all of these promotional ideas in a
cohesive marketing plan mind ma
Develop a “pitch list”

Detailed contact information

Which influencers, magazines, blog, podcast and vlog au- relationships with these people long before you need
thors and hosts need to know about your new book? List them. Build a network of trusted peers who can help you
them all in a book marketing mind map. Include names, build advanced interest in your book
contacts and other vital information. Start building
Create an editorial calendar map

Just mentioning your new book once or twice on

your blog or in your e-newsletter isn’t enough. You
need to plan a 30-60 day campaign of related
blog articles, guest blogs, podcast interviews and
social media mention to generate interest in and
sales of your book,

A right-facing mind map will enable you to create

a timeline for all of these elements.
About the author

Chuck Frey is the author and publisher of The

Mind Mapping Software Blog, the world’s leading
source of news, reviews, advice and learning
about all types of visual thinking and planning
tools. It covers mind mapping, concept mapping,
diagramming, sketching and visual collaboration
tools and techniques.

Chuck also writes extensively about creativity on

his personal blog and his Medium channel.

You can follow Chuck’s work here:

Additional resources
The Mind Mapping Software Blog
ChuckFrey.com
The Essential Guide to Getting Started with Mind Mapping
Medium.com
Software
Twitter
The F.A.S.T. framework for effective mind maps (e-course)
Questions?
ReadWriteMap: An online event held by Biggerplate.com
Contact Chuck here that provides 8 perspectives on writing with mind mapping
(recorded webinars, including one by me!)

© 2021 Chuck Frey

Published 3/19/21