--- title: "Book writing software for a novel in Czech" description: "Write 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." source: https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-czech --- # Book writing software for writing a novel in Czech TL;DR Amazon does not publish in Czech at all, so the export is the product. Galley gives you a print-ready PDF any Czech printer will take, a valid EPUB for the stores that do sell Czech, Czech hyphenation and the „low-high“ quote pair. Čeština ## Jak napsat román česky V Galley píšete román a děláte z něj knihu. Píšete od první věty na skutečné knižní stránce: váš formát, vaše okraje, písmo hotové knihy. Uvozovky jsou české, dělení slov se řídí českými pravidly a na výběr je patnáct knižních písem, všechna se svobodnou licencí, takže smíte prodávat to, co vytisknete. Na konci máte PDF připravené do tiskárny a platný soubor EPUB. Rozhraní je anglicky; kniha je česky. ## Why Galley is the right book writing software for a novel in Czech The first thing to know about publishing a Czech novel is that Amazon is not part of it. **KDP does not list Czech in any format**, not as a Kindle ebook, not as a paperback, not as a hardcover. So the file you end up with is the whole product, and its quality is not something you can outsource to a store’s converter later. That is why Galley’s shape suits Czech. The print-ready PDF is the finished interior a Czech printer can work from, with your trim, mirrored margins and a real gutter, and the font embedded. The EPUB is valid and store-agnostic, which is what Palmknihy, Kosmas, Google Play, Apple Books and Kobo all want. The typesetting is the ordinary part done properly. Czech quotes „low, then high“, and English-first tools give you the curly pair because their smart-quote rule never asked what language the book was in. Czech needs hyphenation in a justified line. And most tools embed a font you are not licensed to sell. Galley picks the quote pair from the language, carries Czech patterns, and ships only faces you may sell the book with. 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 Czech gets typeset **Hyphenation follows Czech rules**, in the justified print PDF only. **The diacritics go all the way through.** Ě š č ř ž ý á í é ú ů ď ť ň survive typing, autosave, search, sorting, both exports and the download filename, so a book called Tiché Hodiny arrives under its own name. **Sorting is Czech**, which matters because č, ř, š and ž each sort as their own letter and a cast list sorted the English way scatters them. **Italics work**, and every face on the shelf carries a real italic cut. ## The typefaces you get for Czech Fifteen faces, all under the [SIL Open Font License](https://openfontlicense.org/). The háček is what to check in a face, because a shallow one either lacks it or sets it as an afterthought sitting on top of the letter. **EB Garamond** is the safe first choice for a novel. ![Sample sentence in EB Garamond](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/eb-garamond-en.png) **Charis SIL** and **Gentium Book Plus** both come out of SIL, which builds for diacritic-heavy scripts by default. ![Sample sentence in Charis SIL](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/charis-sil-en.png) ![Sample sentence in Gentium Book Plus](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/gentium-book-en.png) The rest of the shelf: Crimson Pro, Cormorant, Lora, Libre Baskerville, Literata, Source Serif 4, Spectral, Alegreya, Vollkorn, Cardo, Newsreader and Libre Caslon Text. **What you will not find here:** Preissig’s types and the commercial cuts of Týfa and Menhart, which are the faces Czech book printing was built on. The [typeface documentation](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. ## Exports for a Czech novel - **Print-ready PDF** at your trim, mirrored margins, real gutter, font embedded. - **EPUB 3** with your cover, tagged `cs`. - **Store-ready EPUBs** for Kobo and Apple Books. - **Word and Markdown** for a redaktor 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 Czech book and say why. Nothing else does. ## Czech punctuation The quote pair you get automatically. Czech dialogue is set with a dash at the head of the line in a lot of fiction, and that is a character you type. The Czech habit worth keeping is the non-breaking space after a one-letter preposition, so a line never ends on k, s, v or z. Galley does not insert them, and they survive into the print PDF once you do; the editor’s Invisibles toggle shows where they are. 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 Czech novel is Czech publishing counts in autorské archy. One arch is 36,000 characters including spaces, and a manuscript is quoted in archy when a nakladatelství asks. Galley counts words, so expect to convert: Czech runs roughly 6.5 characters per word with spaces, which puts an 85,000 word novel near 15 archy. The [word count to page count converter](https://usegalley.com/resources/word-count-to-page-count) turns a length into a page count at your trim. ## Trim sizes for a Czech book Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Czech 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 Czech ISBN comes from the Národní knihovna and is free. ## Translating into or out of Czech 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 Slovak](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-slovak), [writing a novel in Polish](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-polish) and [writing a novel in Hungarian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-hungarian). 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 Czech **Self-publishing.** Amazon is closed to you, so the route is a Czech printer or IngramSpark for print, and Palmknihy, Kosmas, Google Play, Apple Books or Kobo for the ebook. All of them take a standard print PDF and a standard EPUB, which is what Galley makes. **Traditional publishing.** Czech 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. - [EPUB vs print PDF](https://usegalley.com/blog/epub-vs-print-pdf) explains what each format can do. ## Questions people ask about writing a novel in Czech ### Can I sell a Czech book on Amazon KDP? No. Amazon does not list Czech in any format, for ebook, paperback or hardcover. Every Galley export still works, so the file goes to a Czech printer, to IngramSpark, or to a store that sells Czech ebooks. ### Which quote marks does a Czech book get? The low-then-high pair, „like this“, which is the Czech convention. The rule follows the book's language. ### Does Galley hyphenate Czech? Yes, on Czech patterns, and only in the print PDF when you justify. ### Do the háček and kroužek survive export? Yes. Ě š č ř ž ů and the rest come through typing, autosave, search, sorting, both exports and the download filename. ## Other languages - [Book writing software for Slovak](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-slovak)Write and typeset a Slovak novel: „low-high quotes“ as you type, hyphenation by Slovak rules, the full diacritic set intact through export, and a print-ready PDF. - [Book writing software for Polish](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-polish)Write and typeset a Polish novel: „low-high quotes“ as you type, hyphenation by Polish rules, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF. Including the Amazon rule that catches Polish writers out. - [Book writing software for Hungarian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-hungarian)Write and typeset a Hungarian novel: „low-right quotes” as you type, hyphenation for long agglutinated words, ő and ű drawn properly, and a print-ready PDF. Start the book. Galley sets it in Czech from the first sentence to the print PDF. [Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com)