A novel, badly written, about a royal that sends one to sleep (7)

'a novel badly written about a royal that sends one to sleep' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'a novel badly written about a royal' is the wordplay.
'badly' indicates anagramming the letters (letters in the wrong order).
'written about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a royal' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation e.g. RM - Royal Marine).
'a'+'novel'='anovel'
'anovel' with letters rearranged gives 'veonal'.
'veonal' enclosing 'r' is 'VERONAL'.

Can you help me to learn more?