A very small press, in Surrey

Every other machine that writes stories is built to make a new one each time. Children do not want a new one each time — they want the one from last night, and the night before, until the corners go soft. So the interesting problem was never generating a story. It was getting a real, bound, physical book out of a conversation before the conversation ended.

That is a hardware problem more than a writing one, which is why this is a press and not an app, and why most of the design decisions on the site read as things the product refuses to do.

We have not shipped. There are no customers, no units in houses and no reviews, and nothing on this site should be read as suggesting otherwise. The eight books on the homepage shelf are written examples of what the press is designed to make — they are illustrations of an idea, not photographs of anybody’s kitchen, and they are not case studies. The prices and specifications are design intent on a first run, and any of them could still move.

An email address, and one email. We are making a small first run, and leaving an address puts you on the list to hear when it opens. It is not an order, there is nothing to pay, and there is no queue position to lose. We will write once, and then not again, which we appreciate is an unusual promise on a page like this one.

An adult’s email address, and nothing else. There is no field anywhere on this site asking for anything about a child — not a name, not an age, not a birthday — and there never will be. The age demonstration on the homepage runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. Analytics is Plausible, which is cookieless and needs no consent banner, because a page arguing against being followed around ought not to follow you around.

Surrey, England. The press is designed and made here; the books are made in your kitchen, which is the only bit of manufacturing we are not doing.

Write to hello@talebrix.com and a person will answer. If you are asking whether it will do a particular thing, that is a useful question to us at this stage — the first run is still small enough that the answer can change.