Is Galley for you?

Galley is built for one kind of writer, so it'll either suit you really well or not at all.

Galley is for you if…

• You're writing a novel. Galley is built for book-length fiction that's going to be read in print or on an e-reader, and everything in the app assumes that's what you're writing.
• You want the finished book to look typeset, not exported. You pick from six trim sizes and 35 book typefaces, and Galley handles mirrored margins, running heads, justification and hyphenation. You see all of that on the page while you write, so there's no surprise when you export.
• You publish yourself, submit to agents, or both. The same manuscript exports a print interior for KDP, EPUBs for each store, and a double-spaced Times New Roman submission package, and you don't have to reformat anything to get from one to the other.
• You keep a story bible. Your characters, places, timeline, glossary and style sheet are in tabs next to the manuscript, and they're included when you export.
• You write on more than one computer. Galley runs in the browser, so it works on Mac, Windows and Linux without installing anything, and your book is the same wherever you open it.
• You'd rather pay once. Galley is €199 once, because I don't think people should pay monthly for something they don't use every month.
• You don't want software commenting on your pace. There are no sprint timers. You can set goals if you want them.

Galley is not for you if…

• You're writing anything that isn't a novel. Galley doesn't do screenplays, dissertations, blogs, cookbooks or picture books.
• You plot visually. If you work with index cards and beat sheets, Scrivener and Plottr are much better at that. Galley has a timeline, per-chapter synopses and chapter stages, and that's as far as it goes.
• You want a writing-sprint timer. Atticus has one. I left it out because I don't think writing a novel should be timed.
• You want AI to help write your sentences. Galley doesn't do that and won't. Sudowrite and a lot of other tools do.
• You write on your phone. There's no mobile app and I'm not planning one. You can import what you've written in your notes app, but Galley only runs on screens bigger than a phone.
• You want themed interiors. Vellum's themes are the best around. Galley sets classic book conventions and doesn't have a theme library, so if themes matter most to you, get Vellum.
• You write with someone else in the same document. For real-time co-writing, use Google Docs or Reedsy Studio. I'm thinking about giving translators and editors access to a book at some point, but not about co-writing.
• You want a Markdown app that syncs across Apple devices. Ulysses does that really well, and if you like working in plain text with iCloud sync, you'll probably prefer it.
• You want goals, streaks and a monthly plan. Dabble is built around keeping you writing every day, and it does that well. Galley is a one-time purchase with goals you can switch off.
• You need to work fully offline, everywhere, today. Scrivener has done that well for twenty years. Galley can write offline too, but it's still in Beta. The offline writing page lists what works and what doesn't yet.

Self-publishing or querying

Self-publishing and querying agents need different things from the same book, so there's a page for each: publishing it yourself and querying agents.

If you're still not sure

The comparison pages go through Galley next to each tool, including where the other tool is better. You can also open the demo, which is the full app with a book already in it. It runs for thirty minutes and you don't need to sign up.