--- title: "Galley for self-publishing authors" description: "Book writing and formatting software for self-published novelists: write on the real page, then export a print-ready PDF, a valid EPUB, and a tuned file for every store. €199 once, no subscription, no AI." source: https://usegalley.com/for/self-publishing-authors --- # Galley for self-publishing authors Type the last sentence, and the files are already made. Self-publishing usually runs on three tools and a freelancer: one to draft in, one to format in, one to check the formatting, and a person to fix whatever broke on the way between them. Galley is meant to be the only one. You choose the trim size and the typeface before chapter one, so the page you type on is the page that gets printed, and the menu at the end has no conversion step in it. *The Galley KDP preflight check listing publishing requirements as passed, flagged for review, or needing a fix.* KDP preflight: each requirement checked or flagged, so you fix things on your side rather than in a rejection email. ## Why Galley, *for you specifically* ### The formatting week never happens There is no import at the end, so there is nothing to break. Six trim sizes from mass market to Royal, 35 book typefaces licensed for commercial publishing, five chapter opening conventions, mirrored margins and a true gutter. Set them once and every chapter follows. The reason most authors budget a fortnight for formatting and lose a month is that they are converting a document into a book; here it was a book the whole time. ### Two files, one manuscript, permanently in sync A paperback needs a print-interior PDF with fixed pages. An ebook needs a reflowable EPUB. Both come out of the same book, so a typo fixed in August is fixed in both. The drift between a paperback and a Kindle edition that quietly stopped agreeing is a self-publishing rite of passage, and it comes entirely from keeping two source files. ### One tuned EPUB per store, if you want to be fussy Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Nook each get their own file. Older Kindle and Nook e-ink renderers overlap a floated drop cap with the text underneath, so those two get a raised initial and the other three keep the proper one. If your other books have store links saved, the "Also by" page in the back matter points at the shop the reader is already standing in. ### Two checks before you upload, asking different questions KDP preflight asks whether Amazon will accept the file: title, author and description present, a cover added, page count inside what the trim allows, no empty chapters, a table of contents, every chapter marked Final. Delivery readiness asks whether the book is finished as a book, and it is less forgiving. Thin chapters, a missing copyright page, comments you left yourself and never resolved, a quoted lyric still sitting at "to request" in the permissions ledger. ### The parts nobody enjoys, written for you The copyright page assembles itself out of the metadata you already entered, so you are not retyping your own ISBN into a template off a forum. The table of contents builds itself. Glossary terms and references become real back matter, and the endnotes renumber when you move a chapter. ### You pay once, and nothing reads your book €199, one time, every feature and every export format included. No AI writes, rewrites or suggests a sentence, and nothing trains on your manuscript. Amazon now asks you to declare AI-generated content when you publish, and being able to answer that without qualifying it is worth something. ## What the whole path *looks like* Every stage links to the part of the docs that explains it. | Stage | What Galley does | Read on | | --- | --- | --- | | Set the book up | Trim size, typeface, chapter openings, scene breaks, British or American house style. Ten minutes, once. | Book design | | Write it | On the finished page, with the story bible on the next tab and focus mode when the room needs to go quiet. | The writing room | | Revise it | Overused words per thousand, the character spelled two ways, British and American drift, the chapter that sags. | Revision | | Get it read | Watermarked drafts, one file per advance reader. A proofreading PDF at two pages a sheet for anyone with a red pen. | Copies for other people | | Fill in the listing | Cover, blurb, ISBN, categories and keywords in one place. The copyright page writes itself from them. | Cover and listing | | Run both checks | Preflight for what Amazon will reject, delivery readiness for what you would regret. | Preflight | | Export and upload | Print-interior PDF, EPUB 3, a tuned file per store, and a large-print edition of the same book. | Every export format | | Then do the next one | Group the books into a series and the design carries across. Derive a second edition or a translation with the structure and bible intact. | Series and editions | ## The features that *matter here* Everything in Galley is included at one price. These are the ones you will actually live in. [**True book pages** Six trim sizes, mass market to Royal](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#trim-size)[**35 book typefaces** Latin, Arabic, Devanagari, Japanese and more, all licensed for commercial publishing](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface)[**Book preview** Flip the print pages, or reflow it on an e-reader](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#preview)[**Print-ready PDF** Mirrored margins, a real gutter, sized to your trim](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#formats)[**EPUB 3** With your cover, valid, for any store](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#formats)[**Store-ready EPUBs** Tuned per shop: Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#formats)[**KDP preflight** Trim, margins, metadata and page count checked before you upload](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#preflight)[**Delivery readiness** Is the book actually finished, or does it just feel finished](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#delivery-readiness)[**Cover & listing** Cover, blurb, ISBN, categories, keywords, in one place](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#metadata)[**The copyright page** Writes itself from what you already filled in](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#copyright-page)[**Large print PDF** The same book, set for readers who need it bigger](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#formats)[**Proofreading PDF** Two pages a sheet, made for a red pen](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#formats)[**Share a copy** A file or a link per reader, with their name watermarked on it](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#for-other-people)[**Series** Group the books, keep the design consistent across them](https://usegalley.com/docs/series-and-translations#series) [The full inventory](https://usegalley.com/features) is longer than this. Nothing is held back for a higher tier, because there isn't one. ## Where Galley is *the wrong tool* ### You are buying decorative interiors Vellum's themed interiors are the benchmark and it is not close. Galley sets classic book conventions correctly and stops there, deliberately. If the themes are the product you want, buy the themes. ### You need a cover designed Galley holds your cover, sizes the book around it, and checks it is there before you upload. It does not draw it. That is still a designer, or one of the cover tools, and it is money well spent. ### You are assembling a box set Series grouping is built, box-set compilation is not. If your next release is three novels bound as one file, that part is still manual. ## Questions I’m self-publishing. What do I actually get at the end? Two files, mainly. A print-interior PDF sized to your trim, with mirrored margins and a real gutter so the inside edge doesn't vanish into the spine, and a valid EPUB 3 with your cover and working chapter navigation. If you want to be fussier there's a tuned EPUB per store, for Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Nook. The copyright page and the table of contents write themselves out of what you already filled in. Then two checks before you upload: KDP preflight tells you what Amazon will reject, and delivery readiness answers the harder question of whether the book is finished as a book. [Galley for self-publishing authors](https://usegalley.com/for/self-publishing-authors)[The self-publishing walkthrough](https://usegalley.com/blog/galley-for-self-publishing) Is it only for Amazon KDP? No. The output is standard: print-interior PDF and EPUB 3 work with KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Kobo, Apple Books, or a local printer. KDP gets a bit of extra attention, with its trims and preflight checks built in, because that's where most self-publishers start. [Publishing & preflight](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing)[Every export format](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export#formats) Can I do both, query agents and self-publish? Yes, and a lot of people end up doing exactly that. It's one book either way, so there's no migration between the two paths: the manuscript export, the print PDF and the EPUB all sit in the same menu. Draft milestones let you mark and name a version, so "the draft I sent my agent" stays something you can open a year later when she finally replies and asks whether much has changed. [Who Galley is for](https://usegalley.com/galley-for-you)[Draft milestones](https://usegalley.com/docs/revision#version-history) ## Keep reading ### Galley for self-publishing https://usegalley.com/blog/galley-for-self-publishing ### Querying agents instead? https://usegalley.com/for/traditional-publishing ### Exports and the toolkit https://usegalley.com/features/make-the-book ### Querying and traditional publishing The manuscript an agent expects, out of the book you actually wrote. https://usegalley.com/for/traditional-publishing ## The website can't make you feel what using Galley is like. *Thirty minutes in it can.* [Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com) Opens straight into a book. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.