Grandchildren grow out of jumpers and lose interest in gadgets. A story in which they are the hero, full of the family's own places and jokes, is something they keep.
Buying for a grandchild gets harder every year. The little ones have more toys than shelf space, the teenagers want money, and the grown-up ones live in flats with no room for anything. What most grandparents really want to give is time and attention, and that is the one thing a wrapped box cannot carry.
A Novellum book carries some of it. You write the brief: your grandchild's name, where they live, what they are into this year, a family place they love, perhaps the dog. Pick one or two genres (fairy tale and adventure suit Christmas well) and we write a whole novel around them. Put yourself in it too, as the grandparent with the mysterious biscuit tin or the shed full of secrets.
It costs from $2.99, arrives by email on Christmas Day with your message, and needs no post office queue. For a grandchild who would rather listen than read, add the narrated audiobook.
This is how one of our books begins. The brief: Tom Hartley, 24, a junior doctor in Newcastle, finds a hand-drawn map in his grandmother's biscuit tin on Christmas Eve (fairy tale and adventure). The hero is invented.
Tom Hartley was not a man given to fables. He was twenty four and a junior doctor who had learned to measure anxiety by the way a patient sat on the edge of a bed. He measured time the same way during a shift. He expected to be tired when he walked into his grandmother Nora’s kitchen on the cold afternoon before Christmas. He did not expect to find a biscuit tin on the top shelf that smelled of old lemon polish and lavender, or to have his hands tremble when the lid came free.
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.
The books are written as novels, and an adult places the order (you must be 18 or older to buy). For a younger reader, choose fairy tale or adventure, say in the brief that the story is for a child, and read page one free to judge whether it suits them. It is a novel, not a picture book.
For a grown-up grandchild, their own email. For a younger one, send it to a parent's email so they can read it together, or have it sent to yourself and read it aloud on Christmas Day.
Yes. Tick "This is a gift", choose 25 December, and it goes that day with your message. Gift cards go out at 13:00 UTC, early afternoon in the UK.
Yes. Name the people and places in the brief, up to 2,000 characters. Only name people who would be happy to appear in a story.
A Short novel is $2.99, or $7.99 with its narrated audiobook. Prices are in US dollars and your card converts them.
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.