--- title: "How to Create an eBook With NotebookLM" description: "Use NotebookLM to turn PDFs, notes, web pages and video transcripts into an outline, chapter notes and citations, then write and export your ebook." robots: "index, follow" canonical: "https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-with-notebooklm" markdown: "https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-with-notebooklm.md" author: "Leo" category: "Book Creation" datePublished: "2026-10-21T06:45:47.500Z" language: "en" dateModified: "2026-10-23T05:28:38.675Z" --- To create an ebook with NotebookLM, use NotebookLM for the part it is built for, which is understanding your material, and use a writing tool for the part it is not built for, which is writing and exporting the book. Add your scattered sources (PDFs, Google Docs, web pages, notes and video transcripts) to one notebook, ask NotebookLM for an outline, chapter briefs and cited quotes, then take those notes into Bookeen to draft the chapters and export EPUB and PDF files. NotebookLM gets you from a messy folder to a clear plan. Bookeen gets you from the plan to a file a reader can open. This guide shows how to use NotebookLM to write a book step by step, with the prompts to use at each stage, a worked example, and the mistakes that cost writers the most time. It is written for coaches, course creators, consultants, researchers and bloggers who already have plenty of material and want to turn it into a short, useful ebook. A quick note on the name: Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026. The [Google announcement](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/notebooklm-gemini-notebook/) calls it the same standalone product, so notebooks and links kept working. This article uses NotebookLM because most people still search for it that way. For a full review of the product and its limits, see the [NotebookLM review on transcript.im](https://transcript.im/blog/notebooklm). ## What NotebookLM Can and Cannot Do for an eBook NotebookLM is an AI notebook that answers questions from the sources you give it, with a citation on every claim, and turns those sources into formats such as briefing reports, study guides, timelines and mind maps. That makes it excellent at the research half of an ebook and a poor fit for the production half. | eBook stage | NotebookLM | Bookeen | | --- | --- | --- | | Collecting and reading sources | Strong: cited answers across many documents | Not its main job | | Finding themes and a structure | Strong: mind maps, briefing reports, outlines in chat | Turns a brief into an editable outline | | Notes and quotes per chapter | Strong: per-chapter summaries with citations | Uses your notes as source material | | Drafting chapters | Weak: built to summarize sources, not to write long-form prose | Plans, drafts and revises chapters | | Cover, layout and export | Not available | Ebook, print and editable files, with a cover | So the honest answer to "can NotebookLM make an ebook?" is no, not on its own. NotebookLM has no manuscript editor and exports no EPUB or PDF. But it removes the hardest part of starting a nonfiction ebook, which is knowing what you have and what the book should say, and it keeps every claim traceable to a source. For the full list of jobs writers give it, from memoir interviews to story bibles, see [what NotebookLM is used for](https://bookeen.ai/blog/what-is-notebooklm-used-for). ## Step 1: Decide What the eBook Is For Before you open NotebookLM, write one sentence that names the reader and the result: "A 30-page guide that helps new freelance designers price their first three projects." That sentence decides which sources go in the notebook and which stay out, and it keeps the outline from sprawling. Short ebooks built from existing material usually fall into one of these shapes: - **A lead magnet**: a short guide you give away in exchange for an email address. It solves one narrow problem. - **A practical guide**: a book that takes a reader through a process from start to finish. Bookeen has a [how-to guide book type](https://bookeen.ai/book-types/how-to-guide) built for this shape. - **A course companion**: a written resource that supports a course, with summaries, worked examples and exercises. See the [course companion book type](https://bookeen.ai/book-types/course-companion). - **A research report**: an evidence-heavy book that presents findings and recommendations. See the [research report book type](https://bookeen.ai/book-types/research-report). Pick one. A book that tries to be a giveaway and a full course at once ends up too long to give away and too thin to teach. ## Step 2: Gather Your NotebookLM Sources The quality of a NotebookLM ebook depends almost entirely on the sources you put in. Collect everything that belongs to the book's promise, and nothing that does not. ![NotebookLM sources for an ebook: PDFs, Google Docs, web pages and video transcripts collected into one notebook](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-with-notebooklm/notebooklm-sources.webp) NotebookLM sources can come from many places. Google's [help page on adding sources](https://support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/16215270) lists PDFs, text and Markdown files, Word documents and audio files such as MP3 and WAV as uploads; Google Docs, Slides and Sheets from Drive; web page URLs; pasted text; and YouTube videos with captions. On the free tier a notebook holds up to 50 sources, each up to 500,000 words or 200 MB for an uploaded file. Paid Google AI plans raise those caps. What writers typically gather for an ebook: - **Your own writing**: blog posts, newsletters, old talks, workshop handouts, client notes, half-finished drafts. - **Research**: reports, studies and articles that support your claims. - **Recorded material**: webinars, podcast episodes, coaching calls and course lessons you own. - **Reader questions**: survey answers, emails and community questions, with personal details removed. Some of this material arrives in formats that are awkward to work with: slide decks, spreadsheets, an EPUB of an earlier book, or a long saved web page. Converting it to Markdown first keeps headings, lists and tables readable and lets you merge several short files into one source, which saves slots. A converter such as [PDF to Markdown](https://markitdown.ai/pdf-to-markdown) on markitdown.ai handles PDFs, and the same site converts Word, PowerPoint, Excel, EPUB and web pages. Video needs one extra step. NotebookLM reads only the caption text of a YouTube video, one link per source, and it cannot import a video without captions. If your best material lives in videos, convert it to text first. A [YouTube transcript](https://transcript.im/) tool such as transcript.im turns a video link, or an uploaded recording, into a timestamped transcript, transcribing the audio when there are no captions, and exports it as TXT, Markdown, SRT or VTT. Because one NotebookLM source can hold half a million words, you can merge a dozen webinar transcripts into a single Markdown file, with each video title as a heading, and add it as one of your NotebookLM sources. If a whole channel or course is the core of the book, [how to create an ebook from YouTube transcripts](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-from-youtube-transcript) covers that route in detail. Two rules for every source: 1. **Use only material you have the right to use.** Your own content is safe. Someone else's book, course or video is not yours to turn into an ebook, even if NotebookLM can read it. The U.S. Copyright Office's [fair use overview](https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/) explains why quoting a little is different from republishing a lot. 2. **Name every source by what it is and when it was made.** "2026-03 webinar - pricing questions" is a useful citation. "Untitled document (4)" is not. ## Step 3: Set Up a Notebook for the Book Create one notebook for the ebook and add your NotebookLM sources. For a short book, 10 to 30 strong sources are plenty. A notebook stuffed with 50 loosely related links gives vaguer answers than one built around a single promise. A few setup habits make every later step easier: - **Add the book's promise as a source.** Paste it as text so NotebookLM can see who the book is for. You can also state it at the start of each question. - **Group long material.** Put related transcripts or articles in one file per theme instead of one file per item. This keeps the source list readable and leaves room under the cap. - **Tick sources on and off.** NotebookLM answers from the selected sources only, so narrowing the selection is how you ask about one chapter without noise from the rest. - **Save good answers as notes.** When an answer is useful, keep it. You will need those notes in Step 6. ## Step 4: Turn Your Sources Into an Outline With the sources in place, ask NotebookLM to find the structure. Start broad, then narrow. ![NotebookLM mind map for an ebook outline: a central topic branching into chapter themes with source citations](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-with-notebooklm/notebooklm-mind-map.webp) First, generate a NotebookLM mind map from the Studio panel. The NotebookLM mind map shows the main topics in your sources and how they connect, which is often the first time you see your own material as a whole. Look for the branches that match your promise. Those are your candidate chapters. Branches that do not serve the promise are material for another book. Then ask for an outline in the chat. A prompt that works: > Using only these sources, propose a chapter outline for a [length] ebook for [reader] that helps them [result]. Give six to ten chapters in a logical order. For every chapter, write one sentence on what the reader learns and name the sources it relies on most. Read the outline critically. NotebookLM organizes what is in the sources, which is not always what the reader needs first. Move chapters into the order a beginner would follow, merge chapters that overlap, and mark gaps where the reader needs something your sources do not cover. A gap is not a failure. It is a list of what you still have to write from your own experience. Two more prompts help at this stage: > Which questions from the reader survey are not answered anywhere in the other sources? > Which topics come up in more than three sources? Rank them by how often they appear. The first finds the gaps. The second finds the ideas you return to again and again, which usually belong in the book's core chapters. ## Step 5: Build Chapter Notes and Collect Citations Now work through the outline one chapter at a time. Select only the sources that matter for that chapter and ask NotebookLM for a brief. ![How to use NotebookLM to write a book: chapter notes with cited quotes, key points and open questions for each chapter](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-with-notebooklm/how-to-use-notebooklm-to-write-a-book.webp) This is the core of how to use NotebookLM to write a book: it does not write the chapter, it prepares everything you need to write it well. For each chapter, collect four things: - **Key points**: the three to five ideas the chapter must deliver, each with a citation. - **Examples and stories**: every example in your sources that fits the chapter, with where it came from. - **Quotes and numbers**: exact wording and figures you plan to use, checked against the cited passage. - **Open questions**: what the reader will ask that your sources do not answer yet. A prompt for the chapter brief: > On [topic], list the main points the selected sources make, the examples they give, and any statistics they cite. Cite each item. Then list questions a beginner would still have after reading those points. Open the citations as you go. NotebookLM is grounded in your sources, but grounded is not the same as correct. It can miss an exception or flatten a disagreement while still pointing at the right paragraph. Copy each quote and number from the source itself, not from the summary. Collect all chapter briefs in one document, in outline order, with the citations next to each point. That document is the bridge between NotebookLM and the book. Treat it as your manuscript plan: chapter titles, main ideas, examples, quotes with sources, and gaps to fill. ## Step 6: Write the Manuscript in a Book Creator NotebookLM for writing works best as preparation, not as the writer. Its answers are summaries of your sources, and a book made of summaries reads like a report about a book. The draft needs a tool designed for long-form writing, and it needs you. ![Create eBook with AI: chapter notes from NotebookLM turned into a book brief, an outline and drafted chapters, then exported as EPUB and PDF](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook-with-notebooklm/create-ebook-with-ai.webp) To create an ebook with AI from here, bring the plan into an [online book creator](https://bookeen.ai/) like Bookeen. Bookeen takes a book from an idea, your notes or an unfinished draft to a complete manuscript and the files to publish it. In practice: 1. **Describe the book.** State the reader, the promise and the length in your own words. Bookeen turns this into a book brief with the reader, purpose, length and an outline you can edit before any chapter is written. 2. **Attach your NotebookLM notes.** Add the chapter-brief document as source material. Only attach notes and drafts you own or have permission to reuse. 3. **Choose the format.** How-To Guide, Course Companion, Research Report, Lead Magnet, Interactive Workbook or Novel. The type shapes the outline and the tone of the chapters. 4. **Compare the outline with your NotebookLM plan.** Adjust the chapter order and titles so they match the plan you built from your sources. 5. **Generate and revise chapter by chapter.** Read every page. Check every fact against your notebook. Replace generic sentences with your own examples and your own voice. You remain the author. Keep NotebookLM open while you revise. When a chapter makes a claim, ask the notebook where the evidence is. When a reader question from your survey is still unanswered, ask which source comes closest. The notebook becomes your fact desk while Bookeen holds the manuscript. ## Step 7: Export, Check and Publish the eBook The last step to create an ebook with NotebookLM and Bookeen is the export. When the manuscript reads well, export the files. Bookeen exports EPUB, PDF, print PDF, DOCX and Markdown, with a cover image. EPUB is the standard reflowable ebook format, defined by the W3C [EPUB 3.3 specification](https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/), and it is what most ebook stores and reading apps expect. A PDF keeps a fixed layout and suits worksheets and printable guides. Before you share or sell the ebook: - **Open the EPUB on a phone and an e-reader.** Check that the table of contents jumps to the right chapters and that headings, lists and images look right. - **Read the PDF at the size readers will see it.** Fixed layouts that look fine on a laptop can be hard to read on a phone. - **Check every quote and number one last time** against the original source, not against your notes. - **Follow the store's rules on AI.** If you publish on Amazon, the KDP [content guidelines](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390) ask you to disclose AI-generated content when you publish. Bookeen does not upload the book to a store for you. You upload the files yourself, which also means you choose where the book goes, and BillionVerify's guide on [how to sell books](https://billionverify.com/blog/how-to-sell-books) compares the options: Amazon KDP, other ebook stores, your own website, or a welcome email for new subscribers if you [start a newsletter](https://billionverify.com/blog/how-to-start-a-newsletter) around the book. If the ebook is a PDF guide, a [PDF to video](https://potto.ai/pdf-to-video) tool such as Potto can turn it into a narrated video with captions, which is an easy way to announce the guide where your readers already watch. Bookeen's guide on [how to create an ebook](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-create-an-ebook) covers covers, layout, file formats and testing in more detail, and its guide on [how to publish a book on Amazon](https://bookeen.ai/blog/how-to-publish-a-book-on-amazon) covers the KDP upload step by step. ## Example: From 12 Webinars to a Short Giveaway Guide Here is what it looks like to create an ebook with NotebookLM, using a made-up example. A bookkeeping coach has run 12 monthly webinars for small business owners, written 40 newsletter issues, and collected 150 answers to a reader survey. She wants a 30-page guide called "Clean Books in One Hour a Week" to give away to new subscribers. ### Sources She transcribes the 12 webinar recordings with transcript.im and merges them into three Markdown files, one per quarter, with each webinar title as a heading. She exports the newsletter archive as two text files, adds the survey answers as a spreadsheet with names removed, and pastes the book's promise as a text source. Seven sources in total. ### Outline The NotebookLM mind map shows five big branches: receipts, bank reconciliation, invoicing, a weekly routine and tax deadlines. The survey prompt shows that "what do I do first" is the most common question, and no source answers it directly. Her outline becomes: a first-hour checklist (written from her experience), then receipts, reconciliation, invoicing, the weekly routine, and a short chapter on deadlines. ### Chapter briefs For each chapter, NotebookLM lists the main points with citations to the webinars and newsletters, every example she has used, and the survey questions the chapter must answer. She checks the cited passages and keeps only the examples that fit a beginner. ### Writing She attaches the chapter notes to a new book in Bookeen, edits the generated outline to match her plan, and revises each chapter, adding her own first-hour checklist by hand. ### Export She exports a PDF for the subscriber download and an EPUB for readers who prefer e-readers, tests both on her phone, and adds the PDF to her welcome email. The NotebookLM part took one afternoon. Without it, sorting 12 hours of webinars and 40 newsletters by topic would have taken days. That is how to use NotebookLM to write a book: NotebookLM sorts the material, and the author does the writing. ## NotebookLM for Writing: Prompts for Each Stage NotebookLM for writing works best with specific prompts. These cover the whole process. Paste them into the NotebookLM chat with the right sources selected, and replace the bracketed parts. To check that your sources support the book: > Based on these sources, what are the five most useful things a [reader] could learn about [topic]? Cite each one. To find the structure: > Group the ideas in my notebook into six to ten themes that could become chapters of a short guide. Name the sources behind each theme. To find gaps: > What would a beginner need to know about [topic] that none of these sources explain? To prepare one chapter: > On [topic], list the main ideas, examples and statistics in the selected sources, with citations, in the order a beginner should learn them. To collect quotes: > Find passages where I explain [idea] in my own words. Quote them exactly and cite the source. To fact-check a draft chapter, with the draft added as a source: > Show the source passage behind every number and quote in the chapter draft, and mark any that have no support in the other sources. ## Common Mistakes When You Create an eBook With NotebookLM - **Too many sources.** Fifty loosely related sources produce vague outlines. A NotebookLM mind map shows the problem at once: too many branches, none of them deep. Start with the ten that matter most. - **Treating summaries as chapters.** NotebookLM output reads like notes because it is notes. Rewrite, do not paste. - **Skipping the citations.** The whole point of NotebookLM is that you can check it. A misquoted number in a published book is hard to take back. - **Forgetting what video loses.** A transcript captures speech only. Slides, diagrams and on-screen demos need to be described in your own words or redrawn, for example with an [AI image generator](https://potto.ai/ai-image-generator) such as Potto, because Bookeen writes text and does not draw illustrations. - **Using material you do not own.** NotebookLM will happily summarize a book you bought. That does not make the result yours to publish. - **No single promise.** Without a clear reader and a clear result, the outline grows until the ebook never ships. ## FAQs ### Can NotebookLM create an ebook? No, NotebookLM cannot create an ebook file by itself. It cannot draft a full manuscript or produce ebook files. NotebookLM can turn your sources into an outline, chapter notes and cited quotes, which you then write up and export with Bookeen. ### How do you use NotebookLM to write a book? To use NotebookLM to write a book, add your research, notes and transcripts to a notebook, generate a NotebookLM mind map and an outline, and ask for a cited brief for each chapter. Then write the chapters in a writing tool, checking each claim against the citations as you revise. ### Is NotebookLM good for writing? NotebookLM for writing works best on the research and planning side: finding themes, building outlines, collecting quotes and checking facts. It is weak at drafting long-form prose in your voice, so most writers pair NotebookLM with a separate writing tool. ### Can I create an ebook with AI? Yes, you can create an ebook with AI by combining tools: NotebookLM to organize your sources and Bookeen to draft chapters and produce the ebook files. You still need to review every page, check every fact and make the book sound like you. ### Can NotebookLM use YouTube videos as sources? Yes, NotebookLM can add public YouTube videos that have captions, but it imports only the caption text, one video per link. For many videos, or videos without captions, transcribe them first with a tool such as transcript.im and add the transcripts as text sources. ### How many sources can I add to a NotebookLM notebook? A free NotebookLM notebook allows 50 sources, and one source may contain 500,000 words or, for an upload, 200 MB. Paid plans allow more, and grouping related transcripts into one file keeps your NotebookLM sources under it. ### Can I sell an ebook made with NotebookLM and AI tools? Yes, you can sell an ebook made with NotebookLM and AI tools if you own the rights to the source material and follow each store's rules. Amazon KDP, for example, asks you to disclose AI-generated content when you publish.