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Gone South
There was no TV back then. No video games. And very little on the radio to appeal to youngsters. So we read, and from our reading drew inspiration for the games we played. But Ted went one step farther. He said that one day he was gonna write a book. All by himself. Now, that was something, 'cause the idea of anybody we knew actually writing a book was beyond us. Except for Ted. He said he was going to. And now he has. Today there are lots of folks who want to write. Some of them are pretty good. The problem is getting what is written published. How Ted was able to do this is an instructive example of how a good idea, talent and luck can all combine to turn writer into an author. Ted did not just get out of school and start writing. He went in the Army, got out, went to college, went into the world of business and did pretty well for a kid from Grove Hill, Alabama. Then he settled into retirement on a lake over in Georgia and started writing hard.
And he called it A Yellow Watermelon. Then he did some research and concluded that to get his manuscript published, he needed an agent. So he went the agent route. And nothing came of it. So he decided that rather than just have a manuscript in a drawer (like so many aspiring novelists), he would publish the dang thing himself. And he did. Now, with all the new techniques available to put stuff in print, self-publishing is not uncommon. That is almost the easy part. It gets hard when you try to market what you have published. Real publishers, the ones who create books to sell to folks other than the author and his friends, know where and how to advertise and distribute - authors don't. So there Ted was, with a bunch of books and a limited market. He and I had stayed in touch, off and on, throughout the years. We had seen each other at reunions. So it was not out of the clear blue that he sent me a copy of the book. I read it. I liked it. I told him so. And he told me of the trials and tribulations that led to him giving up on agents and publishing it himself. At this point, my wife entered the story. She is a former middle-school teacher. Sixth grade. And one of her many strong points is her knowledge of what kids that age like to read. Well, she read A Yellow Watermelon and got right to the point. "I know why he could not get it published," she announced. "He pushed it as a book for big folks. This is young-adult fiction." I realized she was right. So, I wrote Ted. And he realized she was right - or at least she might be. Then we got to e-mailing back and forth about who I knew that published young-adult fiction. And I thought of Randall and Suzanne at NewSouth Books, a neat operation down in Montgomery, with whom I had worked before. They had a children's series - "Junebug Books" - and might be interested. I e-mailed. They answered. Ted e-mailed. They said they did not usually publish stuff that had already been self-published, but if he would send a copy they would take a look when they had time. So, Ted sent it. And they put it with the stack of other stuff to go over, eventually. Days passed. Then weeks. And then, one day, it came up a storm. The lights went off. The computers went down. So Randall decided this was a good time to read some of the stuff that had come in, and on top of the stuff was A Yellow Watermelon. He read it. And he loved it. And the wheels started turning. And this month, just in time for Christmas, A Yellow Watermelon will be in bookstores and on the Internet. Which gets me to my point. If you have a young adult in your house who likes to read, or one who doesn't like to read but who you think might if it is the right book, here is what you are looking for. Ted Dunagan. A Yellow Watermelon.You can get it from bookstores or online, including from www.newsouthbooks.com. It is a dandy.
Harvey H. Jackson grew up in Grove Hill. He is a professor and chairman of the history department at Jacksonville State University.
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