Your first book
Three ways to begin: start fresh, bring in a manuscript you've already written, or base a new book on one you already have here. Whichever you pick, you'll be writing within a couple of minutes, and nothing you choose now is permanent.
The New book window
From your dashboard, click New book . The window opens with three tabs across the top:
BlankImportFrom existing
Starting a blank book
Galley asks a few things up front. Don't overthink any of them; every one is changeable later on the Metadata page.
- Title and author. Working titles are completely fine. Polish them later.
- Book or idea. Mark it an idea if it's more of a someday project than a live one, and it waits on a separate shelf on your dashboard until you're ready.
- Trim size. The physical size of the finished paperback. Unsure? Leave it on US Trade (6×9″), what most novels use. Full rundown in Book design.
- The pages around your story. Tick the front and back matter you want (title page, copyright, dedication, table of contents, and so on). Add or remove them any time.
Galley sets up the book with an empty Chapter 1 and whichever extra pages you picked, then drops you straight into writing.
Importing a manuscript you've already started
Got a draft in Word or elsewhere? Don't copy and paste it chapter by chapter. Switch to the Import tab and pick your file.
- Accepts
- Word (
.docx), plain text (.txt), and Markdown (.md). - Auto-splits
- Galley reads the document and breaks it into chapters wherever it finds a heading or a line like "Chapter 1" or "Chapter Two".
- Shows you first
- Before anything saves, you see the chapters it found and a word count, so you can check the split looks right.
From an existing book: translations & editions
The From existing tab bases a new book on one you already have: a translation into another language, or a separate edition. Galley copies the structure and story bible across and links the two. This is a whole workflow of its own, covered in Series, editions & translations.
Your home base: the dashboard
Once a book exists, the dashboard is where you land every time you sign in. It's built around getting you writing fast. From anywhere in the app, ⌘K opens the command palette and jumps to any chapter, character or place by name, and the rest of the keyboard shortcuts are worth ten minutes early on.
Where you left off
The Lantern of Quiet Hours
412 / your goal
Last 14 days
Your other books
A Winter of Small Rooms
The Keeper’s Account
Recent sessions
The Station at Dusk
A Letter Unsent
What the Tide Left
At Weirwater the lamps were lit by hand, and it was Mara Vale who lit them, down at The Quiet Harbour before the neap.1
At Weirwater Station the lamps were not yet lit. Someone had left before the end of their watch.
* * *
The crossing that mattered was set down in the harbour ledger, in a level hand.
Momentum
412 words today
The book you were last in, one click from resuming — with the goal you set, never a nag.
- Continue writing
- The book you were last in, front and centre, with its cover and a Resume that drops you back into the exact chapter you left.
- Momentum
- If you've set goals, a filling ring for today, a two-week chart, and a running streak, all for that book. Optional, and covered in Account.
- Your other books
- Everything else you're writing, with word counts and a little progress bar built from each book's chapter stages.
- Ideas
- Parked someday-projects, kept on their own shelf so they don't crowd the live work.
- Recent sessions
- A short log of the days you wrote and how much.
From the moment you start typing, everything saves on its own. There's no save button to remember. Head to The editor next to learn the writing page itself.