Eight nights, eight chances to surprise someone. Make one of them a novel written only for them, with the latkes, the family arguments and the menorah in the window all inside it.
In 2026 Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday, December 4, and ends at nightfall on Saturday, December 12. Many families give a small gift each night, and by the fifth or sixth night it gets hard to find something that is not another pair of socks.
A Novellum book is a gift that fits one of those nights. Tell us about the person: who lights the candles, whose latkes are best, which cousin always cheats at dreidel, the story that comes out every year. Pick up to two genres (a cozy mystery and a comedy suit most families) and we write a whole novel with them as the hero, set wherever you say.
It costs from $2.99, arrives by email on the date you pick, and you can add a narrated audiobook for the grandparent who would rather listen. Because nothing ships, it reaches family in another state or another country on the same night as everyone else's gifts.
This is how one of our books begins. The brief: Miriam Adler, 58, a retired pharmacist in Cleveland, Ohio, famous for her latkes and for never losing at Scrabble, finds her grandmother's brass menorah missing from the window on the first night of Hanukkah and spends eight nights working out which member of her family took it (mystery and comedy). The hero is invented.
Miriam Adler stood on a stool in her kitchen balancing a cooling rack of potato latkes in one hand and a bottle of vegetable oil in the other and decided that the universe had a sense of humor and a poor one at that. It was the first night of Hanukkah and the house smelled of onions and frying oil and cinnamon from the honey cake cooling on the counter. Her phone vibrated in her apron pocket for the third time and when she fished it out she saw a stream of text messages, pictures and one short video from her sister Sarah already arguing with her sister-in-law about seating arrangements. Miriam tapped open a message from her grandson Leo; he had spelled the word QUAINT on his Scrabble board and declared it a miracle. Miriam smiled because she knew the true miracle would be if Leo managed not to use two tile racks for one turn.
She set the latkes on paper towels and wiped her hands on her apron. In the window beyond the sink the brass menorah sat on its felt pad where it always sat. It had belonged to Bubbie Esther. It had been polished to a military sheen, and its nine branches curled like the fingers of a practiced pianist. Miriam had lit those bulbs every year since she was old enough to stand on the very stool she was using now. Tonight the menorah was supposed to hold the first candle at sundown but the sky through the window was already bruised with purple. Miriam checked the clock. Thirty minutes to guests.
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.
Any of them. Pick the date at checkout. Cards go out at 13:00 UTC, which is 8 a.m. on the East Coast and 5 a.m. on the West Coast, so it is waiting before the candles are lit that evening.
It follows your brief. Tell us the details that matter to your family, such as the foods, the blessings you say, the songs, who hosts, and the book builds them in. Keep it to what you are happy to see in print.
No. It is a story with your person as the hero. It can be as traditional or as secular as your family is, depending on what you write in the brief.
Yes. Add the narrated audiobook to the Short novel for $7.99 in total, with a choice of four voices.
You read page one free before you pay, with no account and no card. The person it is for reads the whole book when it arrives.
Yes. Every Novellum book is written by AI for one reader, and it says so on the final page.
Questions? Write to us. Novellum books are written by AI, for one reader only.