--- title: "Book writing software for a novel in Danish" description: "Write and typeset a Danish novel: »reversed guillemets« as you type, hyphenation by Danish rules, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF for Amazon or a Danish printer." source: https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-danish --- # Book writing software for writing a novel in Danish TL;DR Danish quotes »like this«, with the guillemets pointing outward, and Galley types them because the quote pair follows the book's language. Hyphenation runs on Danish patterns, æ ø å survive to the filename, and Amazon takes Danish in all three formats. Dansk ## At skrive en roman på dansk Galley er der, hvor du skriver romanen, og der, hvor du laver bogen. Du skriver fra første sætning på en rigtig bogside: dit format, dine margener, bogens skrift. Anførselstegnene er danske, orddelingen følger danske regler, og der er femten bogskrifter, alle frit licenserede, så du må sælge det, du trykker. Ud kommer en trykklar PDF og en gyldig EPUB. Brugerfladen er på engelsk; bogen er på dansk. ## Why Galley is the right book writing software for a novel in Danish Danish quotes »outward«. The guillemets point away from the text, which is the reverse of the French convention and something no English-first tool will ever guess. Most software gives you the curly pair, because its smart-quote rule was written once and never asked what language the book was in. Galley asks, and a Danish book gets the Danish pair as you type. Hyphenation is the second thing. Danish compounds are long and a justified page without hyphenation shows it. Galley carries Danish patterns and applies them in the print PDF when you justify. Third is the font licence. Galley embeds the face inside your PDF and your EPUB, which is redistribution, so every face on the shelf is one 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 Danish gets typeset **Hyphenation follows Danish rules**, in the justified print PDF only. **Æ ø å go all the way through**, including into the download filename. **Sorting is Danish**, and this is not cosmetic: æ ø å sort after z, so a cast list sorted the English way puts three letters in the wrong place. **Italics work.** The italic in each of these faces was drawn, not computed. ## The typefaces you get for Danish Fifteen faces, all under the [SIL Open Font License](https://openfontlicense.org/). **EB Garamond** is the safe first choice for a novel. ![Sample sentence in EB Garamond](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/eb-garamond-en.png) **Spectral** was drawn for long-form reading and sets an even page. ![Sample sentence in Spectral](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/spectral-en.png) **Libre Caslon Text** is Caslon, which Danish and Norwegian printers set for two centuries. ![Sample sentence in Libre Caslon Text](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/libre-caslon-en.png) The rest of the shelf: Crimson Pro, Cormorant, Lora, Libre Baskerville, Literata, Source Serif 4, Alegreya, Vollkorn, Cardo, Gentium Book Plus, Newsreader and Charis SIL. The [typeface documentation](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. ## Exports for a Danish novel - **Print-ready PDF** at your trim, mirrored margins, real gutter, font embedded. - **EPUB 3** with your cover, tagged `da`. - **Store-ready EPUBs** for Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books. - **Word and Markdown** for a redaktør 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 [KDP preflight](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#preflight) checks the file first. ## Danish punctuation The quote pair you get automatically. A great deal of Danish fiction skips quoting entirely and opens speech with a dash at the head of the line, which is a character you type and which survives 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 Danish novel is Danish publishers quote length in words and in printed sheets, where an ark is sixteen pages. Danish fiction sits broadly where English does for adult literary work, and Danish runs slightly longer than English at the same story length. The [word count to page count converter](https://usegalley.com/resources/word-count-to-page-count) and [novel word counts by genre](https://usegalley.com/resources/novel-word-count-by-genre) do the sums. ## Trim sizes for a Danish book Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Danish trade fiction is commonly issued around 13.5×21cm, which falls between the Digest at 5.5×8.5 inches and Royal. 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 Danish ISBN comes from the Danish ISBN office at the Royal Library, and it is free. ## Translating into or out of Danish 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 Swedish](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-swedish), [writing a novel in Norwegian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-norwegian) and [writing a novel in German](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-german). 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 Danish **Self-publishing.** Amazon takes Danish in all three formats. Denmark has no Amazon store of its own, so a Danish self-publisher usually reaches Danish readers through Saxo and the library system instead, and the same print PDF and EPUB serve both. **Traditional publishing.** The Danish trade is small and reads submissions directly. The [submission package](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#where-it-goes) assembles the synopsis, the bio and the opening chapters. Statens Kunstfond grants are a real part of how Danish literary fiction gets written, and they want a sample. 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. - [From manuscript to published book](https://usegalley.com/blog/manuscript-to-published-book) is the whole route. ## Questions people ask about writing a novel in Danish ### Does Galley type Danish quotation marks? Yes. Danish sets guillemets pointing outward, »like this«, and that is what a straight quote becomes in a Danish book. It is the reverse of the French pair, and the rule follows the book's language. ### Does Galley hyphenate Danish? Yes, on Danish patterns, and only in the print PDF when you justify. Justification is off by default. ### Can I sell a Danish book on Amazon KDP? Yes, in all three formats: Kindle ebook, paperback and hardcover. ### Do æ, ø and å survive export? Yes, through typing, autosave, search, the print PDF, the EPUB, the Word file and the download filename. ## Other languages - [Book writing software for Swedish](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-swedish)Write and typeset a Swedish novel: ”right-facing quotes” as you type, hyphenation by Swedish rules, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF for Amazon or a Swedish printer. - [Book writing software for Norwegian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-norwegian)Write and typeset a Norwegian novel in Bokmål or Nynorsk: guillemets as you type, hyphenation for both written standards, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF. - [Book writing software for German](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-german)Write and typeset a German novel: „Anführungszeichen“ as you type, hyphenation that copes with compound nouns, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF for KDP or a German printer. Start the book. Galley sets it in Danish from the first sentence to the print PDF. [Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com)