Phillip Gessert

Phillip Gessert – Designer

Over ten years experience in typesetting and formatting books for print and ebook, with hands-on experience in press environments.

Overview

I’m a book designer, typesetter and print/ebook formatter in Madison, WI. I began building books full time in 2011, and am especially passionate about page typography. I pride myself on building books to the highest standard of quality, both aesthetically and functionally.

I provide fully validated ePub files, suitable for publishing on the Kindle Store and other retailers. All ebooks are created using hand-coded HTML & CSS, and take the unique considerations for different devices into account. The books are built to be flexible and render predictably across a range of e-readers. And I use traditional and classical typographical principles to give the books an appealing look.

I also provide PDF files suitable for print. I’m happy to build to KDP or Ingram Spark specifications, or simply build to industry-standard print-readiness. I use my prepress experience to preflight and prepare PDF files that most any print service provider would be delighted to receive.

Why Choose Me?

Value. I pride myself in finding high-quality, low cost solutions to common design problems. I aim to find a good nexus between beauty and price. This means I am not the cheapest book designer, but I do deliver the best bang for your buck.

Quality. I do not treat your book as a rote technical task. I am a designer, first and foremost, and strive to create tasteful and elegant designs.

Honesty. I aim to be candid and frank with you about your project, alert you to potential issues as quickly as I can, and never obscure anything about the process. This means I immediately alert you to anything that could possibly affect your project. There may be occasional false alarms, but I think it is better to be safe than sorry.

Tenacity. I work tirelessly to correct any issues you may encounter. If you have any sort of problem with your files, at any time, I will do my level best to help.

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Please note that I'll typically ask to review a copy of your manuscript in order to prepare your quote. It is used only to get a count on various formatting elements and to assess scope. Feel free to send it in MS Word format with your quote request!

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"Phillip is a pure delight to work with. He’s meticulous, professional, punctual, and highly capable. He’s met my exacting demands time and time again, even when under pressure of timeline and budget. He’s my only choice when it comes to laying out a book, and I plan on using him for many more projects to come."

--Ben Dutter, Sigil Stone Publishing

"Phillip and I have worked together for a few years now and with each project he has devoted himself to the task and will not quit until the job is done to satisfaction. Very personable and detailed-oriented, I recommend him highly!"

--Kwasi Konadu, Diasporic Africa Press
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Business & Management Education & Reference History
Fiction
Cultural & Ethnic Literary Fiction Mystery & Crime Science Fiction
Languages
English

Work experience

Self-employed

Dec, 2011 — Present

I design custom interiors for indie and self-published authors, suitable for Createspace, IngramSpark, Kindle, and others.

Data Print

Dec, 2007 — Dec, 2011 (about 4 years)

Graphic design and prepress.

Portfolio

"One of the most exciting debuts of 2016," --Richard Peabody, Editor GargoyleA novel in montage, Eisenstein’s Monster is a wild romp through the terrains of our consciousness. A man with termi... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
After your spouse dies, how do you go forward? This beautifully-written memoir faces the realities of a loved one dying.Following a long fight with breast cancer, Tracy's death ended their 13-... read more
Book Interior Design
"This is a great book. Any parent, teacher, grandparent, or anyone else who wants to learn about learning differences, run, right now and buy this book. Concise, yet comprehensive; reader-frie... read more
Book Interior Design
THE GODS WHO CHOSE US (hard science-fiction) is a reimagining of global mythology from a science fiction perspective. Various established mythos have been transformed into unique civilizations... read more
Book Interior Design
Are you struggling with decisions regarding social media and smartphone access for your child? The middle school and teen years are now more challenging than ever. Bullying and suicide are on ... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
Cover Design Book Interior Design
Unlock the key to building successful businesses in challenging international markets.Why do so many investors fail in frontier and emerging markets? How can entrepreneurs increase their odds ... read more
Book Interior Design
AngelFire

Luke Valen

Fairytales, we’ve all been told them.Witches and warlocks,Vampires and werewolves. Myths made to keep you awake at night. Children stories.But what about the stories we’re not told?What about ... read more
Book Interior Design
Discover what dreams are made of . . .Ten-year-old twins Ashlynne and Julian share a special ability: the power to enter each other's dreams. They call it 'sharing' dreams. It's usually a grea... read more
Book Interior Design
Fake news. Alternative facts. Ideological agendas. How do you tell the difference between true and false? How do you know what it all means? In Actually, It's Not Easy, novices and experts ali... read more
Book Interior Design
The breakup of his San Francisco rock band is a hard shove that has Jim Shalabon struggling to stay on his feet. What he needs is balance. What he gets is an earthquake. His best friend and fo... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
An anthology of writing by members of the Maryland Writers' Association's Teen Writing Clubs.
Book Interior Design
A rural community in southeast Tennessee is tested when a teenage girl goes missing. Deputy Galloway suspects his girlfriend's husband of foul play and launches an investigation.Nestled in the... read more
Book Interior Design
Admit it. You dont have much time. You love God, but sometimes your prayer life is virtually nonexistent. Guilt keeps you away from it even longer. And that distance leaves you feeling spiritu... read more
Book Interior Design
A body is no match for an idea. Esteemed NYC anchorwoman, Margi Hall, spends her days reporting on the lives—and lies—of others. When the studio cameras show her imperfections, she seeks out a... read more
Book Interior Design
A string of shattering experiences results in Tara, putting her ambitions aside to marry her college sweetheart at twenty-five. She wakes up as a wife, numbingly empty, but for the next nine y... read more
Book Interior Design
Times have changed and it's harder than ever to build influence. The world is getting better at ignoring you and your message is being smothered by all the noise.That's why influence is no lon... read more
Book Interior Design
Frances experiences three major life changes that led her to new-found freedoms allowing her to explore the Spectrum that makes up life. Frances did all society expected her to do: Married a h... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
Remember Me

Yola Dunne

Betrayed, Carmen saw her life come crashing down. Her world would never be the same. But in the midst of chaos and suffering, she discovered her most powerful ally… “I am Carmen Agnes Sirota. ... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
We see it everywhere: at the park, in restaurants, and inside our homes and cars—kids connected to handheld devices and disconnected from the world around them. According to the latest researc... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
It is no secret that modern knowledge has become specialised into increasingly narrower ‘silos’. While this has had its advantages, more are becoming aware that important connections are being... read more
Book Interior Design
The Black Terrorist

Tierno Monénembo

The Black Terrorist is a fictional account built around the true, extraordinary, but little-known story of Addi Bâ. Addi Bâ was born in Guinea about 1916, brought to France in the late 1930s, ... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
The Chimera Sequence

Elliott Garber

Cole McBride makes a chilling discovery while investigating a mysterious disease causing the deaths of endangered mountain gorillas in war-torn central Africa. When a humanitarian aid hospital... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
Deep down, Robert Goldner knows he's a mistake. His mother told him so when he was just five years old. But he never found the courage to ask just what she meant before she was murdered under ... read more
Cover Design Book Interior Design
The true story of two teenagers who were determined to ascend some of Colorado's tallest peaks. A broken down car turned it into an adventure they hadn't anticipated.
Cover Design Book Interior Design

Phillip has 213 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Theresa K.

Theresa K.

Dec, 2023

Pinned
I can't say enough good about working with Phillip. Just to give you some background, I had somehow committed what appeared to be a fatal error in my Word document - it was full of weird problems that I could not fix, at least in part because I didn't know how in the world I had created such a mess. Phillip not only resolved all those problems, but he put my book in a format that would be easy ...
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Coe B L.

Coe B L.

Jul, 2023

Pinned
Phillip is meticulous in his attention to detail. If you give him a reasonable deadline, he will go as far as he can to deliver the best version of your book. He explained his process when I asked about it and deftly organised all my book's elements, from text documents to maps. He also gave insightful design input, helping me choose fonts that would work with the illustrations I already had. I...
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Casey M.

Casey M.

Apr, 2023

Pinned
I loved working with Phillip for typesetting my novel. Besides delivering a great final product, he spent extra time educating me, and he did it all with a very kind spirit. I will use him for my future books, and I recommend him highly.
Albert B.

Albert B.

Nov, 2024

Excellent experience working with Phillip! He had fine ideas for the interior design of the book. I'd be glad to work with him again.
Eric S.

Eric S.

Nov, 2024

Phillip has designed the interior of the 3 books I've published. I noticed some typos in one of them while finishing editing the audiobook version, and Phillip corrected the typos and updated the text and layout for the PDF and eBook editions.

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