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Format your thriller for the page and the screen.

Short chapters that flick past. Time-stamp headers. Forensic-report inserts. Text-message scenes. We format thrillers and crime fiction so the pace on the page matches the pace on the screen.

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 thriller 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 thriller — go with 5.25×8 in

5.25×8 in

Acceptable alternatives: 5×8 in or 5.5×8.5 in · all are KDP-approved trim sizes

Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, Mark Dawson — the working benchmark for genre thrillers is 5.25×8. It's slightly taller than romance, gives short chapters room to land on their own page, and keeps the spine slim for a 90,000-word manuscript.

Thrillers are text-led — but document inserts and any map plates we treat as 300 DPI images.

What we get right for thriller

The six things that make thriller formatting different from generic novel formatting.

Short-chapter rhythm

Chapter-per-page logic that keeps every chapter (even two-pagers) opening on a recto. The visual pace of a James Patterson, without the page-count blowing out.

Time-stamp headers

Day, time, location at the top of cut scenes — formatted as a typographic block, not Word default text. Renders identically on Kindle and in print.

Document inserts

Forensic reports, witness statements, autopsy summaries, redacted memos — set in a monospaced display face that signals "this is a document" without making it unreadable.

Text-message scenes

Bubble-style layout on print, semantic blockquote pairs on Kindle. Each character's voice gets its own alignment so dialogue is followable without prefixes.

Cliffhanger end-pages

Last sentence of each chapter never orphans onto a fresh page. Hook lines land where readers turn the page, not three lines into the next chapter.

Series branding

Book-in-series number on the spine, "a [Detective Name] novel" line under the title, consistent author logo. Critical for trad-style series shelving.

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 thriller?

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