Halloween, Saturday 31 October
They have seen every slasher, read every ghost story and own the good fake cobwebs. This October, put them inside the story instead: a short novel written for one reader, with them as the hero, in their inbox on Halloween.
Halloween is not a big present holiday, which is exactly why a small one lands. A bag of candy is gone by Sunday. A costume goes back in the closet. A story where your best friend is the one walking down the dark hallway, or the one who finally outsmarts the haunted house, is something they will read, laugh at and send to everyone they know.
You choose how scary it gets. Pick horror for the real thing. Blend horror with comedy for a haunted house that is mostly a disaster, with mystery for a whodunit set on the night of the party, or with fairy tale for something eerie but cozy, the kind of story you read under a blanket with the porch light on. Put the details only you know into the brief: the street they live on, the costume they wear every year, the friend who always screams first. We write the book after you order, and you read page one free before you pay.
It also works for people who are hard to buy for in the fall: the friend with an October birthday, the horror-movie group chat, a book club that wants a seasonal read, or the neighbor who goes all out on decorations every year.
This is how one of our books begins. The brief: Dana Whitlock, a dentist in Salem, Massachusetts, wins the neighborhood Halloween decorating contest every year, until her animatronic witch starts handing out advice that keeps coming true (horror and comedy). The hero is invented.
Dana Whitlock had built her career on the principle that fear was a tool and humor was a solvent. She polished it into practice at Whitlock Family Dentistry where fluorescent lights, stainless steel, and precisely tuned small jokes kept patients from flinching at the drill. She had also built her house on Chestnut Lane into a shrine to spectacle, stringing lights like a floodgate, painting plywood tombstones with clever puns, and calibrating animatronics until even the crankiest teenagers muttered admiration. Winning the neighborhood Halloween decorating contest every year was less about vanity and more about standards. People expected a show. Dana delivered an experience.
On the first Monday of October the front yard looked like an opera. Fog machines coughed, crows hung from invisible wires, and a life-size witch stood at the top of the steps, witch hat askew, fingers long enough to play a xylophone. The witch had been Dana's centerpiece for five seasons. She had a removable jaw that clacked perfectly, a costume that had survived three Nor'easters, and a speaker system that could render a cackle crisp enough to wake the dead. This year Dana had upgraded the circuitry and given the witch a single line of preprogrammed advice that played when someone walked up the path. Dana had not written that advice.
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.
Buying for the whole horror-movie crew? The Bundle is three Medium novels for $13.99. Write the first one now as a gift for one friend and schedule it for Halloween. You also get two codes to hand to two more friends, and each of them redeems their code to design their own story, scary or silly, with nothing more to 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.
As scary as you ask for. Say in the brief whether you want real dread or a cozy, funny Halloween tale, and pair horror with comedy or fairy tale to keep it light. Page one, free, shows you the tone before you pay.
Yes. Tick "This is a gift" and pick 31 October. It arrives that day with your message: morning in the Americas, early afternoon in the UK and South Africa.
Usually, yes. The book is written after you pay and normally arrives in about two hours, so you can order on the afternoon of Halloween and send it straight to them.
Yes. Each book is written for one hero, so order one per friend, or take the Bundle: three Medium books for $13.99, one written now and two codes for friends to redeem for their own stories.
An adult places the order (you must be 18 or older to buy). If the story is for a younger reader, choose fairy tale or adventure rather than horror and say in the brief that the story is for a child, then read page one before you pay.
The Short novel is $2.99, the Short with its narrated audiobook $7.99, the Medium $4.99, the Full $6.99 and the Bundle of three Medium books $13.99, all in US dollars.
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.