Writing in your language

Book writing software for writing a novel in Croatian

TL;DR

Amazon does not publish in Croatian in any format, so the print PDF and the EPUB are the whole product. Galley types the Croatian quote pair, hyphenates on Croatian patterns, and every face on the shelf carries đ, which is where shallow fonts give up.

Hrvatski

Kako napisati roman na hrvatskom

Galley je mjesto gdje pišete roman i gdje od njega radite knjigu. Pišete od prve rečenice na pravoj stranici knjige: vaš format, vaše margine, pismo gotove knjige.

Navodnici su hrvatski, rastavljanje riječi slijedi hrvatska pravila, a na izbor je petnaest knjižnih pisama, sva sa slobodnom licencijom.

Na kraju dobivate PDF spreman za tiskaru i valjani EPUB. Sučelje je na engleskom; knjiga je na hrvatskom.

Why Galley is the right book writing software for a novel in Croatian

Croatian has a small alphabet problem and a large market problem, and a book tool has to solve the first before the second matters.

The alphabet problem is đ. It is a distinct letter, not a d with a mark, and it is exactly the character a font with shallow coverage drops or fakes. Every face on the Croatian shelf carries it, along with č, ć, š and ž, and all of them survive typing, search, sorting, both exports and the download filename.

The market problem is that Amazon does not list Croatian in any format. Not ebook, not paperback, not hardcover. So the file you make is the whole product, and Galley makes both halves of it properly: a print-ready PDF at your trim with mirrored margins, a real gutter and the font embedded, and a valid EPUB that belongs to no particular store.

The quotes and the hyphenation are the ordinary work. Croatian quotes „low, then high“, and Galley picks that pair from the book’s language rather than handing you the English one.

Everything else is the same app: a true book page at your trim, the story bible beside the manuscript, a print-ready PDF and a valid EPUB.

How Croatian gets typeset

Hyphenation follows Croatian rules, in the justified print PDF only.

The full alphabet goes all the way through, including đ and including into the download filename.

Sorting is Croatian, so č, ć, dž, đ, š and ž land where a Croatian reader expects them instead of scattered through a Latin ordering.

Italics work. All fifteen faces ship a drawn italic.

The typefaces you get for Croatian

Fifteen faces, all under the SIL Open Font License.

EB Garamond is the safe first choice for a novel.

Sample sentence in EB Garamond

Charis SIL has the deepest diacritic coverage on the shelf.

Sample sentence in Charis SIL

Alegreya was drawn for literature and handles hooked and barred letters well.

Sample sentence in Alegreya

The rest of the shelf: Crimson Pro, Cormorant, Lora, Libre Baskerville, Literata, Source Serif 4, Spectral, Vollkorn, Cardo, Gentium Book Plus, Newsreader and Libre Caslon Text. The typeface documentation lists every face by language.

Exports for a Croatian novel

  • Print-ready PDF at your trim, mirrored margins, real gutter, font embedded.
  • EPUB 3 with your cover, tagged hr.
  • Store-ready EPUBs for Kobo and Apple Books.
  • Word and Markdown for an urednik 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 Croatian book and say why.

Croatian punctuation

The quote pair you get automatically. Croatian dialogue is set with a dash at the head of the line in most fiction, and that is a character you type.

The dialogue punctuation rules and dashes, hyphens and ellipses sheets cover the general cases.

How long a Croatian novel is

Croatian publishing quotes length in authors’ sheets and in characters. Galley counts words and projects a page count at your trim, which is the number your printer works from.

The word count to page count converter should be a helpful resource for you.

Trim sizes for a Croatian book

Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Croatian trade fiction is commonly issued around 13×20cm, close to the Digest at 5.5×8.5 inches. The spine width calculator and the trim size comparison would be helpful here.

The copyright page writes itself from the metadata you filled in. A Croatian ISBN comes from the national library in Zagreb.

Translating into or out of Croatian

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 Serbian, writing a novel in Slovenian and writing a novel in Czech.

No machine touches the prose. Galley has no AI anywhere near your writing.

Self-publishing and traditional publishing in Croatian

Self-publishing. Amazon is closed, so print goes through a Croatian printer or IngramSpark, and the ebook goes to Google Play, Apple Books, Kobo or a regional store.

Traditional publishing. Croatian houses read submissions directly, and the Ministry of Culture support schemes are a real part of how literary fiction gets published. The submission package assembles the synopsis, the bio and the opening chapters.

The same book exports both. The longer arguments are in Galley for self-publishing and Galley for traditional publishing.

Where to go next

Questions people ask about writing a novel in Croatian

Can I sell a Croatian book on Amazon KDP?

No. Amazon does not list Croatian in any format. The print PDF goes to a Croatian printer or IngramSpark, and the EPUB goes to any store that sells Croatian.

Which quote marks does a Croatian book get?

The low-then-high pair, „like this“, which is the Croatian convention. The rule follows the book's language.

Do č, ć, đ, š and ž survive export?

Yes, through typing, autosave, search, sorting, both exports and the download filename. Đ is the one that breaks shallow fonts, and every face on the shelf carries it.

Does Galley hyphenate Croatian?

Yes, on Croatian patterns, and only in the print PDF when you justify.

Other languages

  • Book writing software for SerbianWrite 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 SlovenianWrite and typeset a Slovenian novel: „low-high quotes“ as you type, hyphenation by Slovenian rules, č š ž intact through export, and a print-ready PDF for a Slovenian printer.
  • Book writing software for CzechWrite and typeset a Czech novel: „low-high quotes“ as you type, hyphenation by Czech rules, háček and kroužek intact through every export, and a print-ready PDF.

Start the book. Galley sets it in Croatian from the first sentence to the print PDF.

Launch Galley