Thank you all for being a part of The Book of Everyone in 2016. I hope your books brought a little joy and sunshine wherever they landed.
When we started The Book of Everyone back in 2013, our goal was to ‘create gift heroes one book at a time’. To be honest, we didn’t have a clue how to run a business, but we did manage to create a product that made people feel unique and loved.
By 2016 we had somehow built a team (it’s amazing what free haircuts, yoga, and an office in Barcelona can do) and we saw our vision take hold by creating thousands of gift heroes everyday and delivering books to over 175 countries around the world.
2016 was not without its challenges, with the usual lack of sleep associated with a young company growing fast. A huge Valentine’s Day followed by a busy Mother’s Day and record-breaking Father’s Day set the pace.
Then, in September we rolled out a brand-spanking-new website designed to make your experience smoother and more immersive. After ironing out the bumps and squashing the bugs, it’s behaving itself. We’re incredibly proud of it and will continue make improvements in the next year.
Our Facebook community is thriving thanks to the popularity and diversity of posts each week. Our followers are entertained with invigorating ´Words To Live Your Week By’, brain-tickling Friday Facts and the occasionally lavatorial ‘Word Nerds’ (who would have thought that pumpernickle, which means fart goblin, would prove so popular…).
Our Facebook page has also become an arena for impassioned dialogue, with fierce debate over political hot-spuds such as Brexit and the US election, and the sharing of personal anecdotes, none more so than a post that encouraged tales of mushroom foraging! So thanks for being part of the conversation and if you missed out, do take a peek at our Facebook and Instagram, and give us a like/follow.
Finally, after a colossal effort by the team, and many of our customers who also contributed, we released a new product in October, Wise Words for Kids. A new entry in the personalised children’s book market, and the one that’s not a storybook!
With Wise Words for Kids you get to share all those words of wisdom you wished someone had told you when you were a kid. It’s also a great way to subtly plant a few hints in their lives (such as ‘never underestimate the power of fresh socks’). It’s easy to make (just add a name), fun to personalise and is designed to help your nephews, nieces, children and grandchildren navigate the hurdles of growing-up in a fun way.
Besides Wise Words, our existing range includes milestone editions, books for mums and dads, a romantic epic, and a quickie for those in a rush (you can take a look at the full selection in our shop). In 2017 we’ll continue to create new personalised products for new occasions and people in your life.
As ever, if you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We are always keen to hear from you.
We can’t thank you enough for joining us on this journey.
Here’s to a fabulous 2017.
Jonny
36 Comments
I purchased a Book of Everyone for my brother for Christmas and he loved it. I appreciated receiving your letter and finding out how you started and will look out for other books. I may do a Wise Words for Kids for my 20 year old daughter who will probably appreciate the humour of it.
Keep up the good works.
Jayne
Lovely from start to finish, Jayne – thanks so much for taking the time to share your kind words with us ❤️️
Please keep me posted on how making a Wise Words book goes over for your 20-year-old – we had originally designed it with a younger crowd in mind, but I’ll tell you that I made one for my 26-year-old brother and it went over GREAT.
Hi, I ordered a couple of books before Christmas but they have yet to arrive. Can you give me an idea as to what is going on ??
Many thanks
Paul Harrison
Hi Paul! I’m so sorry for the late response – your comment got caught up in the backlog of post-holiday stuff I was working through. I’ve altered the customer care guys immediately and they should get in contact with you within the next few minutes via your email address. Let’s get your books located and make this right.
Just want to say a big thank you, my hubby loved his book ?, it’s a wonderful product, backed by fantastic Customer Service ??……,,,
Thanks heaps and loads, Lorraine – simply thrilled to hear that the book you made for your husband went over so brilliantly. All the best from the whole team!
Your books are extremely enjoyable and i hope to continue to get them printed for family and friends. Well.done and wish you all.the success in the future.
It just doesn’t get much better than that. Thanks so much for the kind words, Humaira – and so glad to hear you’re over the moon with the books you’ve made. We’ll be here whenever you’re ready for more!
I ordered a Book about Jason for my son…he is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for so I thought this would be fun and interesting as well as something NO ONE else would get him. My biggest disappoinment was (and MY FAULT I suppose for not doing more research) is that the book is written for those living in the UK not America…Hats off to the creators for coming up with this novalty idea but I wish there had been a disclaimer somewhere warning me before I spent $30 on a book that had many references to things that made little or no sense to us Yankees. Next time I will be more diligent when shopping online. Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts.
Happy New Year….
Hi Alyson! I wonder if you might have accidentally gotten onto the UK version of our site – we have two versions of all of our books, one stuffed full of beans-on-toast for the Brits, and the other slathered in BBQ sauce for the Yanks.
If you’d like a new book that’s more US-oriented, we can totally make that happen for you – give our customer care guys a ring and they’ll give you a code to create a US book at cost price ?
Bought one of the books for my husband at Christmas. It was really great and he loved it. Just one thing though. He was born in 1952 and the ‘shopping list’ was in modern day pence when of course in 1952 it would have been ‘old shillings and pence’ . Just thought you would like to know. Otherwise it is brilliant.
Thanks for the feedback, Ruth! I’ve forwarded it to my team to have a think over. The idea of that page is to demonstrate what items would have cost in today’s money – but it’s an interesting alternative option to show the currency of the time period too!
My wife loved the book it’s personal and out us it would be nice to add more pages if poss. But if not it is still a fabulous product
Super glad to hear the book you made went over great, Alan! If you could add more pages, what would they be about? We’re always looking for specific feedback from people like you ?
Brilliant idea wanted to do something personal for my sons 30th birthday had great fun thank you
Wonderful to hear it, Teresa! Simply thrilled to have been a small part of making your son’s 30th something extra-special ❤️️
I bought one of these books for my husband for Christmas and he swears that it is the best
gift that he has ever received.
I think it was well thought out and produced. The materials used were really high quality
and the work that had obviously gone into making it so perfect and personal was amazing.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone involved in the process and I hope your
company goes forward into 2017 with overflowing order books, it deserves to.
Yours faithfully
Denise Currie
Can you see me blushing from there, Denise? Colour me flattered to the moon and back – I’ve just taken a screencapture of your comment and shared it with the whole team to make everyone smile.
Simply thrilled to hear that the book you made for your husband was a huge hit. And yes, here’s to many many more people making books for the people they love in 2017!
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know,the book I ordered for my husband Geoff for Christmas was great.He loved it and can’t stop showing people.
Thank you ,I will certainly ordering more for those special events and spreading the word.
Lovely to read, Maureen – showing the book you made to anybody and everybody is certainly a sign of great success! ? We’ll be right here whenever you come across another event that merits a book with someone’s name on the cover.
I love the book I purchased as a gift for my husband.
Glad to hear it, Linda – did the book you made go over as well with your husband as it did with you?
Thankyou
You’re very welcome, Mandy ❤️️ Any time you come across another occasion to build someone special a book in the future, we’ll be here!
Thank you so much for the fantastic books, some of my family are in Singapore the books have proved to be a hit in that neck of he woods !
All the best for the future of the company
Regards
Loraine
I just love thinking that books our customers make spread the love all around the world! Singapore, eh? I’ve heard they have excellent noodles out in that little corner of the planet… may just have to visit with a heap of books in tow. ?
Hi Jonny
Very nice to hear from the CEO of a company. Most of them wouldn’t know what’s going on. Cheers to you for being on the same level with everyone and in touch. You have a good team, maybe you can be Aussie based (haha ) one day. You never know. Cheers
I have a sneaky little secret for you, Lesley… our 2017 plans include taking a look at expanding our books to our friends down under ? Sit tight and stay tuned – and get yourself following our Facebook or our newsletter to be the first to know when it’s ready!
Got a bday book for a friend for Xmas, need another one, but this time friend is Canadian, can you do a book that relates to Canadians, she will b 50 in feb, thanx
As you might imagine, Tina, putting books together for a whole new country takes us quite a bit of time – there are entries for every single page for every single birthdate, after all! But I’ll let you in on a little insider knowledge: making a book for our Canadian friends is DEFINITELY on our radar for the coming years. ? Sit tight and stay tuned – and get yourself following our Facebook or our newsletter to be the first to know when it’s ready!
From start to finish your team has it nailed, it is very rare in our current climate to receive good service and I have been really impressed.
I would love to be part of such a refreshing and creative bunch.
All the very best for 2017 onwards and upwards I hope for you and team
Satisfied customer
Karen
Thank you so much for this, Karen – it’s messages like yours that make this whole project worthwhile. Passing your kind words on to the customer care team to make everyone smile – and hey, if you ever find yourself in Barcelona, do pop by our office! We’ve got sunshine to spare ☀️️
Bought several of your everyone books as gifts and the family and friends were all slighted with them. Congratulation on setting up these novel gifts. All the Best,
Margaret.
Hopefully you meant “delighted” rather than “slighted”… fingers crossed! ? Thanks a heap for your kind words – it’s been a labor of much love and laughter for us, and we’re simply thrilled that you’ve had a great time giving them to special people in your life.
I got this book for my boyfriend he is so difficult to buy for and he loved it great result thank you all so much many thanks Mia
Wonderful to hear it, Mia <3 We specialise in the difficult-to-buy for! Thrilled that the book you made has gone over so big with your boyfriend.