Teachers collect a lot of mugs. A story in which they save the day, written from the class's own memories of the year, is one they will keep in a drawer for decades.
End-of-term presents for teachers follow a pattern: chocolates, a candle, a mug that says something about being the best. They are kind, and teachers are grateful, but what most teachers say they treasure is a handwritten card that names something specific they did.
A Novellum book is that card, made much longer. One parent gathers a few memories from the class: the school trip, the class pet, the phrase the teacher always uses, the day the fire alarm went off during the nativity. Write them into the brief with the teacher's name, pick a genre (comedy and mystery make a gentle school caper), and we write a whole novel with the teacher as the hero.
At $2.99 it suits a class collection or a single family. It arrives by email on the last day of term with the class's message, and it also works as a Christmas thank-you before the winter break. Some schools set a limit on gifts to staff; this is a small one, but check if you are unsure.
This is how one of our books begins. The brief: Mrs Helen Okafor, a Year 6 teacher in Bristol, has an hour to find Professor Biscuits, the class guinea pig, before the leavers' assembly (comedy and mystery). The hero is invented.
Mrs Helen Okafor had a way of reading a classroom that made other teachers think she had a private radio between her ears. She could tell, by the tilt of a child's head, whether they had eaten breakfast. She could tell, by the blink-rate during silent reading, who was pretending to have finished and who was genuinely lost in the adventure. On a good day her whistle hung from her lanyard like a lucky charm. On an ordinary day it sounded like the start of a games lesson. On the last day of the summer term it felt like a countdown.
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. Collect a sentence or two from each family and one person writes them into the brief, up to 2,000 characters. Use first names only for the children.
Yes. Tick "This is a gift", add the teacher's school email or a personal one if you have it, and choose the date. Cards go out at 13:00 UTC, early afternoon in the UK.
Say in the brief that it should be gentle and suitable for a classroom, choose comedy, mystery or fairy tale, and read page one free before you pay.
A Short novel is $2.99, or $7.99 with its narrated audiobook. Prices are in US dollars and your card converts them.
Yes. The book comes as an EPUB and a PDF, and the PDF prints well for a keepsake copy signed by the class.
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.