Welcome to Monad Books:
We’re an independent publishing house that grew out of a Hollywood Hills book-reading club. A small group of loyal book lovers, with pretty much the same taste in reading enjoyment, would gather every month or so at one of the member’s homes for dinner and discussion of that month’s assigned book. As most of us were associated with the entertainment business in one way or the other, we liked to read anything to do with Hollywood, be it fiction or non-fiction. Often we would fantasize about starting our own publishing company to bring out the kind of books we liked to read. We even formed a board, drew up the company plans, and came up with a name, referring to how we were doing this all on our own without a financial giant behind us. I was elected Publisher because of my prior knowledge of the business
Not long after these ambitious plans were launched, a founding member of the group, Susan Richards Morris, brought us copies of a manuscript by a published writer friend of hers. She thought it was such a “damned good read” we should consider it as the first book of our new publishing house. We all read the manuscript and at the next get together unanimously agreed, if we were going to take a shot a getting our own company off the ground, this book would be it. We made the author an offer unheard of at the time: a fifty-fifty split of any profits after publication and promotion costs.
We are thrilled that James Cass Rogers accepted our offer and was willing to take the leap of faith with us. Venice to Avalon, a Hollywood murder mystery with an unexpected twist, became our first book. We quickly followed it with another Hollywood insider’s novel, Abracadabra Alakazam, by Oscar nominated costume designer, Jean-Pierre Dorleac. We here at Monad Books are very proud of these two entertaining books and present them to you with great confidence. We can guarantee you that both these books are “damned good reads.”
Enjoy! And please, send us your feedback.
Yours in good reading,
Charles Reeb,
Publisher
