How a personalized picture book gets made
Three steps, and we'll tell you which one is the machine. There's no checkout anywhere in this process — you see the finished book before you decide anything.
What you need before you start
Less than you'd think. Nothing here has to be complete or polished.
- Details only you know
What they're obsessed with this year, what they're scared of, the thing they say that makes everyone laugh. This is what the story gets built from. - A photo, if you have one
It helps, but it isn't required — plenty of people just describe the kid. You don't upload it here: mention in the form that you have one and we'll ask for it by email when we get back to you.
The three steps
- STEP 1
You tell us about them
About five minutes in a form. Their name, their age, what they're into right now, and the occasion. Skip anything you don't know — we'd rather have three real details than a complete form full of guesses.
- STEP 2
AI drafts it. An editor writes it.
Our AI produces the first pass of the story and the illustrations in minutes. Then a human editor rewrites the words so they read well out loud, fixes the pacing, and throws out any art that came out wrong.
- STEP 3
The book comes to you
The finished book arrives in your inbox as a print-ready PDF. Read it on a tablet, print it at home, or tell us you want it as a hardcover and we'll print and ship it.
Where the AI stops
Step 2 is the one people ask about, so here it is in plain terms. The AI writes the first draft of the story, produces the first pass of the illustrations, and lays out the pages. That's the whole of its job.
After that a person takes over. An editor rewrites the story so it reads well out loud, checks every page against what you told us, regenerates art that came out wrong, and approves the final book. Nothing is sent to you that a human hasn't read, and nothing is printed that you haven't approved.
Why we say so instead of hiding it
AI is the reason a custom-written, custom-illustrated book costs $9.99 instead of several hundred. Pretending otherwise would mean charging you for a difference that isn't there.
If something isn't right
Reply to the email with what's wrong and we'll redo it. A page whose art missed, a detail we got backwards, a name spelled the other way — tell us and it gets fixed. You haven't paid anything at that point, so there's nothing to argue about.
Related pages
About 5 minutes · No credit card · You'll see the whole book before you decide