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Format your science fiction for KDP.

Ship-log inserts. AI-voice dialogue blocks set in monospace. Star-charts and tech diagrams at 300 DPI. Hard SF or space opera or cyberpunk — we format science fiction the way Gollancz and Orbit do.

Back to all book types

Free · 60 seconds · No payment

Before you pay anyone — score it free first.

Drop your manuscript and we run the same 30+ checks Amazon does, line by line, in under a minute. You get a clear /100 score, every failure point flagged, and the exact fix for each one. Whether you book us, do it yourself, or hire someone else — running this first means you don't pay for a service you didn't need.

  • Margins & gutter
  • Image DPI
  • Font embedding
  • ToC links
  • Blank pages
  • ISBN match
  • Bleed configuration
  • Page-count rules
  • Spine width
  • EPUB validation
  • 20+ more checks
  • Per-file PDF report
Step 1 · Production

KDP Readiness Score

"Will my science fiction novel pass KDP review?"

Drop your manuscript
Or click to choose a file

Accepts .docx, .pdf, .epub · up to 200 MB · files never stored, deleted after 24h

Run the KDP Readiness Score →

The recommended trim size

The format choice that matters most. We can deviate if your project needs it — but here's the working benchmark.

Recommended KDP trim

For science fiction novel — go with 5.5×8.5 in

5.5×8.5 in

Acceptable alternatives: 6×9 in or 5.25×8 in · all are KDP-approved trim sizes

5.5×8.5 is the working SF trim (Asimov reprints, Becky Chambers, Adrian Tchaikovsky). Slightly taller than a romance, slightly slimmer than epic fantasy — matches the SF shelf perfectly. If your book runs 150k+ words or has heavy diagram content we'll push you to 6×9.

SF diagrams and star-charts are vector-redrawn and pre-flighted at 600 DPI for print.

What we get right for science fiction novel

The six things that make science fiction novel formatting different from generic novel formatting.

Ship-log + transmission inserts

Captain's-log entries, intercepted comms, datapad readouts — set in a distinct monospaced display face inside a bordered block. Reads as a document, not narrator voice.

AI / synthetic-voice dialogue

AI character dialogue set in monospace or small-caps depending on your house style — visually distinct from human speech without breaking the prose flow.

Star-charts + tech diagrams

Vector-first redraws of any system map, ship schematic or tech diagram. 600 DPI for print, SVG for Kindle 9+, PNG fallback for older devices.

Footnotes (hard SF)

Hard-SF authors sometimes want real footnotes for the maths. We set them as bottom-of-page footnotes on print, hyperlinked pop-ups on Kindle — and they survive reflow.

Multi-POV voice differentiation

Chapter-header treatment differs per POV — useful in space-opera ensemble casts. The reader knows whose head they're in by the header style alone.

Glossary + appendices

Tech-glossary, faction list, timeline appendix — scannable two-column on print, hyperlinked from first-use on EPUB.

Standard, on every project

Whatever the book type, this is what every order includes.

Print-ready PDF

KDP-compliant margins, mirrored gutters scaled to your page count, 0.125-inch bleed where needed, embedded fonts, 300 DPI image pre-flight, semantic page-break logic.

Reflowable Kindle EPUB

Optimised for every Kindle device including phone reading. Clean chapter recognition, working drop caps, scene-break ornaments, properly-linked TOC, semantic ordered/unordered lists.

Cover wrap calibration

Spine width auto-calculated from your final page count. Cover supplied to KDP-template spec for paperback, hardback or both. Full-bleed art tested against KDP's print profile.

Two free revision rounds

Side-by-side viewer to comment on specific pages. Most books need none; complex non-fiction sometimes needs both. Additional rounds £19 each.

KDP-approval guarantee

If KDP rejects your file for a formatting reason, we fix it free. We've never had a rejection — but the guarantee is the principle.

UK-based, no Mac required

You send a Word file (or PDF, Google Docs, RTF, ODT, EPUB, plain text). We send back finished files. No software to install, no learning curve.

Ready to format your science fiction novel?

From £69 for print-ready PDF. £119 for print + Kindle. Picture-book and complete packages from £179.

Order your formatting → ← All book types
Last reviewed May 2026 · Reviewed by the publishing.co.uk team