Book writing software for writing a novel in Greek

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

Be careful with any tool that claims Greek support. A lot of Latin fonts carry a handful of Greek letters because those letters double as mathematical symbols: alpha, beta, pi, delta, omega. That is enough to make a font look like it covers Greek in a dropdown and nowhere near enough to set a book, and you find out at export when the rest of the alphabet comes back as boxes.

Galley tests coverage against a full Greek alphabet, so the shelf on a Greek book is the seven faces that do set Greek and none of the eight that do not. Alegreya, Cardo, EB Garamond, Gentium Book Plus, Literata, Source Serif 4 and Vollkorn.

The quote pair is the second thing. Greek sets guillemets and English-first software gives you the curly pair. Galley picks the pair from the book’s language.

The third is the market: Amazon does not list Greek in any format. So the print-ready PDF and the valid 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 at your trim, the story bible beside the manuscript, a print-ready PDF and a valid EPUB.

How Greek gets typeset

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

The final sigma is its own letter and it survives search, sorting and both exports, so ς at the end of a word never becomes σ.

Sorting is Greek, so a cast list or a glossary comes out in the Greek alphabet.

Italics work. Greek is one of four scripts on the shelf with a real italic tradition, and the Greek italic in these faces is drawn rather than sloped.

Polytonic is a coverage question, not a setting. Breathings, the circumflex and the iota subscript need a face that carries them, which is what makes Cardo the choice for a book that needs them.

The typefaces you get for Greek

Seven faces, all under the SIL Open Font License.

Cardo was drawn for classical scholarship and has the polytonic coverage to prove it. It is the first place to look for a Greek book.

EB Garamond carries Greek as well as Latin, and Garamond’s Greek types are part of the same tradition.

Gentium Book Plus comes from SIL, with wide diacritic coverage and a calm page.

The other four: Alegreya, Literata, Source Serif 4 and Vollkorn.

What you will not find here: the Monotype and Linotype Greek families. Greek is better served than most scripts, because the Greek Font Society releases serious free revivals and Cardo’s polytonic work came out of scholarship. The typeface documentation lists every face by language.

Exports for a Greek novel

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

Greek punctuation

Guillemets you get automatically. Greek uses the ano teleia in place of a semicolon and the question mark is a semicolon shape, both of which are ordinary characters that survive typing and both exports. Greek dialogue is set with a dash at the head of the line in most fiction.

The dialogue punctuation rules sheet covers speech across conventions.

How long a Greek novel is

Greek publishers quote length in words and printed sheets of sixteen pages. Galley counts words and projects a page count at your trim, which is the number the printer works from.

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

Trim sizes for a Greek book

Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Greek trade fiction is commonly issued around 14×21cm, between the Digest at 5.5×8.5 inches and Royal. The spine width calculator and the trim size comparison would be helpful here.

Metadata and the copyright page

The copyright page writes itself from the metadata you filled in. A Greek ISBN comes from the National Book Centre’s successor agency at the National Library.

Translating into or out of Greek

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 Turkish, writing a novel in Bulgarian and writing a novel in Italian.

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

Self-publishing and traditional publishing in Greek

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

Traditional publishing. Greek houses read submissions directly. 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

• Writing software for novelists who don’t write in English covers every script Galley sets.
• Book design and typefaces lists every face by language.
• Series and translations covers the full language list.
• Book typography basics is the set of rules that makes a page look made.