July 11th – Kathleen Y’Barbo and Karen Young on Publicity and Early Morning Web Workshop
“Getting the Word Out, with or without a Publicist”
Whether or not authors are fortunate enough to have a professional publicist at their disposal, they’re still responsible for helping alert and attract potential readers. Coming to West Houston RWA to share their knowledge on getting the word out, with or without a publicist, USA Today bestselling, RITA nominated romantic suspense (and now inspirational romantic suspense) author Karen Young teams with CBA bestselling inspirational romance author Kathleen Y’Barbo, who is also an exclusive marketing professional for Books & Such Agency (where Karen Young is currently represented).
About the speakers:
Kathleen Y’Barbo first discovered her love of books when, at the age of four, she stumbled upon her grandmother’s World Book Encyclopedias. Letters became words, and words became stories of far-away places and interesting people. Eventually Kathleen learned that her love of story could carry her off to places far beyond her small Texas Gulf Coast town. Then she hit the road for real, earning a degree in Marketing from Texas A&M before setting off to such locales as Jakarta, Tokyo, Bali, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Finally, the road led back to Texas and a career in writing, where within a decade, Kathleen is now a best-selling award-winning author of more than thirty novels, novellas, and young adult books. In all, more than 850,000 copies of her books are currently in print in the US and abroad.
In addition to her skills as a writer, Kathleen is exclusive publicist for Books & Such Literary Agency. Thus, the girl who only dreamed of books now is thrilled to not only write them but also tell the world about other authors.
Kathleen is a member of Authors Guild, Advance Writers and Speakers Association, American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, Words For the Journey Christian Writers Guild, and Public Relations Society of America. She holds a BBA from Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School and a certification in Paralegal Studies. A tenth-generation Texan, Kathleen Y’Barbo has a daughter and three sons.
About Karen Young : Although I’ve written 35 books, I’m convinced that I didn’t choose a career as a writer; it chose me. After numerous long distance moves necessitated by my husband’s career, I realized I would never have enough time in one particular job to develop a career. So, out of sheer desperation after the tenth move, I decided to try writing a book. When a major publisher bought it, I knew that I had found a career! Or, as I mentioned, it had found me.
Writing fulfills something inside me like nothing else. I’m interested in people, in their lives, in who they are,
in their interests, in what makes them tick, in what makes them happy or sad or good or bad. Spinning a tale with characters drawn from whole cloth out of my imagination is just plain fun.
But I want my books to speak to my readers. I’m drawn to explore the problems of contemporary women. With three daughters of my own, I see first hand the ups and downs of relationships, of difficulties women face in balancing career with marriage and motherhood, with the challenge of blended families as a result of divorce and—looking beyond my family—to issues facing society as a whole.
Ten years ago, I lost my husband to a fatal heart attack. Not only was my world changed, but I was changed in ways too numerous to mention. One of the most joyous was that I was drawn back to the faith of my childhood. And, along with that, I began to explore the possibility of writing inspirational fiction. Over the years as I’ve conceived and developed plots relevant to the lives of contemporary women, there is one element that I feel is overlooked. And that is spirituality, faith. My books have always included the tension between right and wrong, but I mostly avoided adding the spiritual tension— those hard questions and struggles when characters inevitably dealt with trouble. Writing good inspirational fiction is not about adding a religious component to a book— it’s so much more. Now I freely explore the presence of a spiritual dimension to my characters. I can flesh out my characters to add the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.
Early Morning Workshop: “Building your Web Presence: Where your website ends…”
Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean that you are done with the internet. There so many other ways out on the web to promote yourself and put yourself out there. Your website is just the beginning, but it is your decision on how far you can go. Sarah and Steph return to help you learn about the internet beyond your website.
About the speakers:
Stephanie Leary began designing websites professionally around the same time she started writing novels. Her web design work in higher education has garnered several awards, and she serves on the programming committee for the annual conference of the HighEdWeb Association.
A system administrator by day, Sarah Schroeder would rather be writing code or working on her latest romance work-in-progress. A RWA member since 1994, she received her PRO status in 2006, a delay which she blames on her college education.
In 2006, the two teamed up form Paged Media, a website development company for the literary minded and literary organizations.
Schedule for July 1th:
8:00-9:00 - Open doors - sign in/coffee plus Early Morning Bonus Session
on "Building your Web Presence" w/ Sarah Schroeder and Stephanie Leary.
9:00 to 10:30 - Business meeting, PAL reviews & introductions
10:00 to 10:30 - Break
10:45 to 11:45 - Main Speakers Kathleen Y'Barbo and Karen Young
12:00 to 12:30 - Booksigning with various authors
12:30 - Adjourn to lunch
