Another candle, another mug that says Coffee First. Or a short office whodunnit where your coworker is the one who cracks the case, with the whole team's in-jokes inside it.
Coworker gifts are tricky. You want something more personal than a gift card, but not so personal that it is awkward on Monday. Most people settle on chocolates and hope for the best.
A Novellum book sits right in the middle. Write a few lines: their role, the thing they always fix, the running joke about the printer, the snack drawer, the client who calls every Friday at 4:55. Pick up to two genres (mystery and comedy is the office favorite) and we write a short novel with your coworker as the hero, kind enough to read at the party and funny enough to be passed around.
The Short book is $2.99, well under the usual office gift limit, and arrives by email on the day you choose. For a whole team, the Bundle gives you three Medium books for $13.99.
This is how one of our books begins. The brief: Denise Albright, 52, the office manager at a small architecture firm in Minneapolis who keeps the whole place running and knows where every stapler lives, has until the five o'clock holiday party to work out which of her eleven colleagues made every Secret Santa gift vanish from under the office tree (mystery and comedy). The hero is invented.
Denise Albright arranged the holiday tree ornaments in strict horizontal bands because symmetry calmed her, and because no one would remember to put the angel on straight. The tree stood in the reception area with the dignity of a building permit; its lights blinked in time with the humming of the copy machine and the faint jazz playlist that Tom from Design insisted was "seasonally neutral." Denise stepped back, surveyed her work, and patted a branch to settle an errant candy cane. The candy cane swung and revealed a small naked bulb of wire where the Secret Santa gifts should have been.
She had, for a moment, believed her brain had the wrong file open. A parking ticket. A grocery list. The coffee order. None of those would make the wrapped packages vanish. She checked the base of the tree like a tax auditor; she checked behind the potted ficus like someone looking for a misplaced tax return. The packages were not there. The neat row of eleven little rectangles and whimsically tied bows that she had lined up the night before for eleven colleagues had been replaced by a single note pinned to an empty box of tissues. The note said HAPPY HOLIDAYS in a marker that was almost Keith's and almost not Keith's at all.
A real opening Novellum wrote for an example brief, quoted unedited. Your book starts from your brief, and you read its page one free before you pay.
| Short novel, about 30,000 words | $2.99 |
| Short novel with its narrated audiobook | $7.99 |
| Medium novel, about 60,000 words | $4.99 |
| Full novel, about 95,000 words | $6.99 |
| Bundle: three Medium books, one now and two codes to give later | $13.99 |
Prices in US dollars, the same everywhere. You pay only after you have read page one.
Yes. The Short book, about 30,000 words, is $2.99. The audiobook edition is $7.99 and longer books start at $4.99. You pay only after reading page one.
Gift books are kept clean and kind by default. Leave out anything personal you would not say in a team meeting, and read page one before you pay.
Only for people who would be happy to appear in the book. First names and job titles are plenty; never include anyone's health or private matters.
Yes. Choose the date at checkout. Cards go out at 13:00 UTC, which is 8 a.m. on the East Coast and 5 a.m. in the West.
Yes. Enter their email and type "Your Secret Santa" in the From line. The card shows only the name you type there.
Yes. It is written by AI for one reader and says so on its final page.
Questions? Write to us. Novellum books are written by AI, for one reader only.