Efficient workflow to write a book in Org-mode

Question

I plan to write a short statistics textbook using Org-mode. Even if some textbooks have been written using equivalent systems (e.g., the R package bookdown), I have no examples in mind of books directly written in Org-mode.

The LaTeX guidelines of all major editors (e.g., CRC, Springer, Wiley) do not seem to facilitate the use of Org-mode, or at least, they require to build an appropriate workflow I cannot figure out on my own. (I am still a beginner in Org-mode.)

Indeed, they require any part, chapter, appendix, acknowledgments, etc., to be submitted in a separate .tex file, with some precise requirements for each file. A master .tex file then gathers all those files and produce the final output. (Example: Springer class here.)

Has someone already managed to set up an appropriate workflow for this kind of "constraint"? I can imagine two options:

1. Should I export a series of separate foreword.tex, chapterXX.tex files, partXX.tex files and so on, from one single book.org file? And how to do so automatically each time book.org is exported? (Is it even possible to respect the Springer guidelines by doing so?)

2. Should I create a series of separate foreword.org, chapterXX.org files, part.org files and so on, export them separately (and manually?) in LaTeX, and finally use the master TeX file from Springer to generate the whole book?

Unfortunately, in both cases, I do not see how to preview easily the whole book when exporting my org file(s), like any other org document. Getting/previewing the final book seem to require several manual operations each time, which would make this workflow really difficult to use.

Sorry for this rather vague question, but I cannot figure out how to proceed to respect those guidelines.

Answer 1

I think you are actually looking for publishing of projects.

This does not only work for HTML but also for LaTeX. Projects are managed in org-publish-project-alist. Each entry of that list is one project. There you specify things like project path, publishing path, whether to create latex files that can be translated separately or body only files that can be included into some main LaTeX file.

Example for a project with Org source files in the project directory ~/Book and publishing directory ~/Book/Publish:

(add-to-list 'org-publish-project-alist
         '("My First Project"
        :base-directory "~/Book"
        :publishing-directory "~/Book/Publish"
        :publishing-function org-latex-publish-to-latex
        :body-only t
        :makeindex t
        ))

In this case you must manage yourself the main latex file which just includes the exported LaTeX files.

You can also create a project with two subprojects where one subproject manages the main file (with setting :body-only nil) and the other is for the org files with the contents of the chapters (with setting :body-only t). This way you let Orgmode generate the LaTeX header. Then use a LaTeX block with the \include commands for the chapters.

EDIT: 1. Do not use :auto-sitemap t but let LaTeX generate the table of contents.