Standard Manuscript Format, and What Agents Actually Check
The Shunn manuscript format specification in plain terms: font, spacing, margins, indents, scene breaks, the running header, and the word count that should be rounded.
The Galley blog
Finishing a book is a craft with a hundred small decisions — trim size, word count, front matter, which files a store actually wants. Here's the plain version of each, from someone building the tool that does them.
Galley (8)Publishing (8)Craft (3)Design (2)Formatting (2)Guides (1)
Publishing
Design
Writing Software for Novelists Who Don't Write in English
How to write and typeset a book in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hebrew, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Greek or Vietnamese, which typeface each script gets, and what still needs building.
Publishing
Accessible Ebooks and the European Accessibility Act
What the EAA means for a self-published novel sold in the EU: accessibility metadata, what makes an EPUB accessible, the microenterprise exemption, and the large-print edition nobody makes.
Guides
The Best Book Writing Software for Self-Publishing Novelists (2026)
A no-hype guide to the writing tools novelists actually use (Scrivener, Vellum, Atticus, Ulysses, Dabble, Reedsy, and Galley), sorted by what you need each one to do.
Publishing
Galley for Self-Publishing
What self-publishing a novel in Galley involves: a print-ready interior PDF, a valid EPUB, a tuned file per store, and two checks that run before you upload to KDP.
Publishing
Galley for Traditional Publishing
Querying agents or working with an editor: standard manuscript format, the submission package, watermarked beta drafts, and getting an editor's Word comments back where they belong.
Craft
How Long Should a Novel Be? Word Counts by Genre
The word-count ranges agents and readers actually expect (fantasy, romance, thriller, YA, literary), and what to do if you're way over or under.
Formatting
How to Choose a Trim Size for Your Novel
What trim size means, the standard sizes for fiction (5x8, 5.25x8, 5.5x8.5, 6x9), and how to pick the one that fits your genre and page count.
Galley
Is Your Writing Being Used to Train AI?
How to find out what your writing app is allowed to do with your manuscript: the licence grant, the improve-our-services clause, the sub-processor list, and what no hosted tool can honestly promise.
Galley
Why Galley Will Never Put AI in Your Prose
AI writing tools are everywhere. Galley deliberately has none in your manuscript: no generation, no rewriting, no training on your words. Here's the reasoning, in full.
Formatting
Front Matter and Back Matter: The Right Order for a Novel
Every page that comes before and after your story (half-title, title, copyright, dedication, acknowledgements) in the order printers and readers expect them.
Craft
Sending Your Novel to Beta Readers
When to send a draft out, how many readers you actually need, the brief that gets useful answers, what file to send, and why every copy should carry the reader's name.
Galley
What You See Is What Prints: Writing on the Real Book Page
Most writing apps show you a text box and reveal the book only at export. Galley shows the finished 6x9 page (trim, typeface, ornaments, scene breaks) while you write.
Publishing
EPUB, Print PDF, or Both? The Files You Actually Need to Self-Publish
What each publishing file is for (print-interior PDF, EPUB, DOCX) and which ones you need for Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Apple Books, and Kobo.
Galley
From Manuscript to Published Book, Without Leaving One Tool
The back half of self-publishing (print PDF, EPUB, KDP preflight, beta-reader drafts, submission packages) usually means a second tool or a freelancer. In Galley it's a menu.
Publishing
How to Format a Paperback for KDP (Margins, Gutter, and Bleed)
A plain-language walkthrough of the print-interior settings Amazon KDP checks (trim size, margins, gutter, bleed, and page count) so your paperback passes on the first upload.
Galley
Why Galley Is Buy-Once, Not a Subscription
Most writing tools now rent by the month. Galley is €199, paid once, with every feature and every future update included. Here's the reasoning, and the maths.
Publishing
Do You Need an ISBN to Self-Publish?
When you need an ISBN, when you don't, the difference between KDP's free ISBN and your own, and why the imprint on the barcode matters more than the cost.
Galley
Keep the Story Bible Beside Your Manuscript, Not in Another App
A story bible only works if you keep it updated, and a bible in a separate app is a bible you forget. Galley's lives next to the prose, one keystroke away.
Craft
What Is a Story Bible, and Do You Need One?
The reference document that keeps names, timelines, and world details consistent across a novel or series, what goes in it, and when you actually need one.
Design
The Typography Rules That Make a Book Look Professionally Made
Widows, orphans, rivers, hyphenation, and the small typesetting conventions readers never notice but always feel, and why they separate a real book from a Word export.