Florham Park Book Publisher Aims Big

By day, Dawn Monique Edmond works as a paralegal. Once the sun sets, you can find her in her Florham Park home running her small but growing publishing company, Enid-Books, Corp., named after her mother, Enid. In the time she has run the company, she has published books on a range of subjects and reading levels, and grades of thematic intensity. From a children’s book on a girl who wants to join the football team, to her assisting a pastor in writing about his failure as a father and family man, Enid-Books is unafraid of the big topics, and with Edmond at the helm, only has plans on growing. 

Before turning to publishing, Edmond was first a writer herself (and she continues to be one today). Her first book, a memoir titled Till the Break of Dawn, recounts the time when an ex-boyfriend, recently the victim of a horrible stroke, requested that she be present by his side in his lengthy period of recuperation. 

“I decided to sit down and write about that ordeal precisely because it was such a trying experience,” says Edmond by phone, recalling her decision to heed a friend’s suggestion about a year into the ordeal that she sit down and write her story. “No one would’ve believed me if I told them I went through the act of caring for my ex and being there for him in his most difficult time, so I decided to document it.” 

The result is a memoir imbued with a sense of mission, both in the boldness of her affirmation to be present for her former beau and in the equally bold decision to elevate the experience into writing. The act of replaying each day, taking notes of precise events and conversations, delving deeper into her own feelings and motivations, and slowing down time was, for Edmond, an unexpected, slow-burning catharsis. The end result is a touching and revealing look into her heart, her faith, and a statement on the raw power of compassion. 

“The sense of purpose was immediate for me once I heard he wanted to see me,” Edmond recalls. “We had broken up about a month prior to his request for me to join him in recovery, and, in all likelihood, I would’ve honestly stopped speaking to him had he not taken the initiative to reach out to me. And once that happened I couldn’t deny him. I couldn’t walk away from him. I had to respond.”

With the memoir finished and a string of rejections by larger publishing firms looming over her, Edmond simply decided to start up her own company. She named it Enid-Books, after her late mother. The decision brought her into contact with other aspiring storytellers that were in need of her skills as a researcher, writer, and stickler for on-the-page details to improve their manuscripts. Needless to say, as the CEO of her small company, Edmond wears many different hats, including that of editor, proofreader, talent scout, and counselor. 

  For When a Father Fails, she approached Newark pastor Bryant Ali about a book he had written with the same title, about his disparity of his successful life as pastor and his failure as a husband and father. Edmond read the book and found it lacking in narrative cohesion, forcing the reader to strain through choppy sentence sequencing, poor paragraph structure, and poor vocabulary choices. Reading this version of Ali’s story, which Edmond recognized as having enormous potential if done properly, was a stifling experience.

She approached Ali personally and was honest with him about what she thought of his writing. To her surprise, the pastor readily accepted the critique, and admitted to being in need of help in stringing his otherwise fascinating story—and sense of regret for his failures—together into a more readable volume, one that could attract a wider readership and, hopefully, encourage other failing fathers to take a good, hard look into the mirror. The end result? Exactly that. 

When a Father Fails explores failing fatherhood from both the father’s side and the family’s side, focusing on the need of the father to decide to do right, even when initially rejected by his children who, in the early stages of the reconciliatory process, have no option but to reject. Having buried their anger and disguised it as apathy, children in such situations need space with which to rediscover for themselves the depths of their desire to love their father, and to be loved by him. The father’s responsibility in this situation is, frankly, to just keep on showing up, despite the intensity of his children’s initial rejection.   

The Enid-Books fleet of publications not only focuses on interfamilial conflict resolution, a field Edmond navigates well, but on reaching a younger audience as well. Her niece, Dasia Edmond, in her memoir, Uniquely Made: “Girls Don’t Play Football”, reminds readers of the need to remain firm in their goals, and to let no one convince them they cannot accomplish something. 

For more information on Enid-Books, or to browse their catalog, please visit the company’s website at enidbookscorp.com.