--- title: "Book writing software for a novel in Bulgarian" description: "Write and typeset a Bulgarian novel: ten book faces that carry Cyrillic, „low-high quotes“ as you type, hyphenation by Bulgarian rules, and a print-ready PDF. Including the letterform question no free font solves." source: https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-bulgarian --- # Book writing software for writing a novel in Bulgarian TL;DR Bulgarian quotes „low, then high“ and Galley types it, which most tools get wrong because they key the rule to the script and Cyrillic is not one convention. Amazon does not publish Bulgarian at all, so the print PDF and the EPUB are the whole product. Български ## Как да напишете роман на български Galley е мястото, където пишете романа и където правите книгата. Пишете от първото изречение върху истинска книжна страница: вашият формат, вашите полета, шрифтът на готовата книга. Кирилицата се поддържа от десет книжни шрифта, курсивът в тях е нарисуван, а не наклонен програмно, а сричкопренасянето следва българските правила. Накрая получавате PDF, готов за печатница, и валиден EPUB. Интерфейсът е на английски; книгата е на български. ## Why Galley is the right book writing software for a novel in Bulgarian Bulgarian is the language that proves keying typography to the script is wrong. Cyrillic is not one convention. Russian and Ukrainian quote in guillemets. Bulgarian and Serbian quote „low, then high“. Software that decides your quote marks from the alphabet gets half of Cyrillic wrong by construction, and until recently that included this one. Galley now keys the rule to the book’s language, so a Bulgarian book gets „ and “ as you type and a Russian book in the same account gets « and ». The second thing is the shelf. Five of the fifteen Latin book faces cannot render a word of Bulgarian, and the filter hides them on a Bulgarian book rather than letting you pick one and find out at export. The third is Amazon, and it is a closed door: **KDP does not list Bulgarian in any format.** Not ebook, not paperback, not hardcover. So the print PDF and the EPUB are the whole product, and Galley makes both without shaping either for a store that will not take them. Everything else is the same app: a [true book page](https://usegalley.com/features/make-the-book) at your trim, the [story bible](https://usegalley.com/features/story-bible) beside the manuscript, a print-ready PDF and a valid EPUB. ## How Bulgarian gets typeset **Cyrillic italic is a different alphabet, not a slope**, and all ten faces on the shelf carry a drawn one. **Hyphenation follows Bulgarian rules**, in the justified print PDF only. **Sorting is Bulgarian**, so a cast list comes out in the Bulgarian alphabet. **The upright letterforms are the honest gap.** Bulgarian Cyrillic has its own upright shapes for в, г, д, и, п, ц and ш, closer to the italic forms than to the Russian upright ones, and a Bulgarian reader notices when a book is set in the Russian shapes. No free book face ships them, so every face on this shelf sets the Russian forms. That is a real limitation and it is named here rather than left for you to find. ## The typefaces you get for Bulgarian Ten of the fifteen book faces carry a full Cyrillic alphabet: Alegreya, Charis SIL, Cormorant, EB Garamond, Gentium Book Plus, Literata, Lora, Source Serif 4, Spectral and Vollkorn. All under the [SIL Open Font License](https://openfontlicense.org/), which is the licence that lets Galley embed the font in a file you sell. **EB Garamond** is the safe first choice for a novel. ![Sample sentence in EB Garamond](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/eb-garamond-ru.png) **Literata** reads well at small sizes and sets an even page. ![Sample sentence in Literata](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/literata-ru.png) **Vollkorn** is warmer and a little heavier. ![Sample sentence in Vollkorn](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/vollkorn-ru.png) The [typeface documentation](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. ## Exports for a Bulgarian novel - **Print-ready PDF** at your trim, mirrored margins, real gutter, font embedded. - **EPUB 3** with your cover, tagged `bg`. - **Store-ready EPUBs** for Kobo and Apple Books. - **Word and Markdown** for a редактор or an archive. - **Manuscript format**, double-spaced. - **A proofreading PDF** two pages to a sheet, and a **large print PDF**. - **A watermarked copy per beta reader**. The Amazon-shaped tools switch off on a Bulgarian book and say why. ## Bulgarian punctuation The quote pair you get automatically. Bulgarian dialogue is set with a dash at the head of the line, which is a character you type and which comes through both exports unchanged. The [dialogue punctuation rules](https://usegalley.com/resources/dialogue-punctuation-rules) and [dashes, hyphens and ellipses](https://usegalley.com/resources/dashes-hyphens-and-ellipses) sheets cover the general cases. ## How long a Bulgarian novel is Bulgarian publishing quotes length in печатни коли, one кола being sixteen printed pages, and in characters. Galley counts words and projects a page count at your trim, which is the number that decides how many коли you have. The [word count to page count converter](https://usegalley.com/resources/word-count-to-page-count) should be a helpful resource for you. ## Trim sizes for a Bulgarian book Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Bulgarian trade fiction is commonly issued around 13×20cm, close to the Digest at 5.5×8.5 inches. The [spine width calculator](https://usegalley.com/resources/book-spine-width-calculator) and the [trim size comparison](https://usegalley.com/resources/book-trim-size-comparison) would be helpful here. ## Metadata and the copyright page The [copyright page](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#copyright-page) writes itself from the metadata you filled in. A Bulgarian ISBN comes from the national library in Sofia. ## Translating into or out of Bulgarian A translation in Galley is its own book: its own language, its own typeface shelf, its own ISBN, its own cover, still linked to the original, with the editor split so the original sits read-only beside what you write. There are pages on [writing a novel in Russian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-russian), [writing a novel in Serbian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-serbian) and [writing a novel in Ukrainian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-ukrainian). No machine touches the prose. Galley has [no AI anywhere near your writing](https://usegalley.com/blog/no-ai-in-your-prose). ## Self-publishing and traditional publishing in Bulgarian **Self-publishing.** Amazon is closed, so print goes through a Bulgarian printer or IngramSpark, and the ebook goes to Google Play, Apple Books, Kobo or a Bulgarian store. All of them take a standard print PDF and a standard EPUB. **Traditional publishing.** Bulgarian houses read submissions directly. The [submission package](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#where-it-goes) assembles the synopsis, the bio and the opening chapters. The same book exports both. The longer arguments are in [Galley for self-publishing](https://usegalley.com/blog/galley-for-self-publishing) and [Galley for traditional publishing](https://usegalley.com/blog/galley-for-traditional-publishing). ## Where to go next - [Writing software for novelists who don’t write in English](https://usegalley.com/blog/write-a-novel-in-your-language) covers every script Galley sets. - [Book design and typefaces](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. - [Series and translations](https://usegalley.com/docs/series-and-translations) covers the full language list. - [Book typography basics](https://usegalley.com/blog/book-typography-basics) is the set of rules that makes a page look made. ## Questions people ask about writing a novel in Bulgarian ### Which quote marks does a Bulgarian book get? The low-then-high pair, „like this“, which is the Bulgarian convention and not the one Russian and Ukrainian use. Galley keys the rule to the language, so Bulgarian gets its pair and Russian gets guillemets. ### Can I sell a Bulgarian book on Amazon KDP? No. Amazon does not list Bulgarian in any format. The print PDF goes to a Bulgarian printer or IngramSpark, and the EPUB goes to any store that sells Bulgarian. ### Which fonts can set Bulgarian? Ten of the fifteen book faces carry a full Cyrillic alphabet. The other five cannot render a word of Bulgarian and are hidden on a Bulgarian book. ### Does Galley ship the Bulgarian upright letterforms? No, and nor does any other free book face. Bulgarian Cyrillic has its own upright shapes for в, г, д, и, п, ц and ш, and every face on this shelf sets the Russian-style forms. It is a real gap and it is named here instead of buried. ## Other languages - [Book writing software for Russian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-russian)Write and typeset a Russian novel: ten book faces with real Cyrillic italics, hyphenation by Russian rules, a print-ready PDF and an EPUB. Including the one thing Amazon will not do for you. - [Book writing software for Serbian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-serbian)Write and typeset a Serbian novel in Cyrillic or Latin: ten book faces that carry both alphabets, „low-high quotes“ as you type, hyphenation by Serbian rules and a print-ready PDF. - [Book writing software for Ukrainian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-ukrainian)Write and typeset a Ukrainian novel: ten book faces with real Cyrillic italics, hyphenation by Ukrainian rules, «guillemets» as you type, and a print-ready PDF. Including the Amazon rule Ukrainian writers hit. Start the book. Galley sets it in Bulgarian from the first sentence to the print PDF. [Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com)