Promoting Yorkshire Authors

Notes for the Promoting Yorkshire Authors (PYA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) Held Wednesday 21st January 2026

Paul Smith welcomed everyone to the PYA AGM and started with highlights of the Chair's Report before addressing the topic of the committee and subcommittee structure for 2026.

Highlights from the Chair and Finance Report

2025 has been another interesting year for PYA as we grew our membership to nearly 450 from across Yorkshire and welcomed many new members to some of our book selling events.

We moved and upgraded our website this year and have made easier the administration of bookings for events where members can participate (like book fairs).

Thanks to the generosity of the organisers, we were invited to attend the prestigious Harrogate Spring and Autumn Harrogate Flower Shows, at the Great Yorkshire Showground and Newby Hall respectively in 2025. We have also been invited to attend the spring show in 2026 (and hopeful the autumn show but this will depend on whether space is available for us), and are grateful for the opportunity to inform everyone about our Community Group and sing the praises of our members and their work.

PYA held two book fairs in the Ridings Centre in Wakefield and we've scheduled two for 2026 - in spring on 16th May and our Christmas book fair on 28th November.

We also held two Book Fairs at Claro Lounge in Ripon and one at Rudding Park near Harrogate but footfall was low for both of these events and we may decide not to run these again.

We're happy to support members who want to run their own book fair type events and promote them through our usual channels but the number of PYA organised events is limited and must be deemed worthwhile by the PYA Events Subcommittee. We have limited resources and we want book fairs to be a success for those participating.

We've continued our monthly ZOOM sessions and are grateful to Helen Johnson for hosting the evening and afternoon sessions of the monthly Writers' Support Group which helps us all improve our authoring with a ten minute writing exercise against a theme. You'd be surprised what can be achieved in ten minutes and the techniques that you learn in these sessions help you improve your writing skills.

The other monthly ZOOM session is hosted by Linda Jones and is the Children's Author Group. We've produced the anthology of children's stories and poems entitled I Want a Crocodile and Make it Snappy which will be published soon.

We linked up with the group "Books and Beverages" to hold a series of children's story and craft days at Knaresborough, Bilton and Harrogate Libraries in 2025 and have more arranged for Knaresborough in the coming year.

Finally, PYA were invited some time ago to link up with the writing group Thirsk Write Now (TWN) who meet by ZOOM every two weeks on a Tuesday at 7.30 pm during the year to read out a short story to a prepared theme. We've some regular attendees from PYA now so, if you are interested in attending, please let us know and TWN will add you to their distribution list to let you know of upcoming themes.

Promoting Yorkshire Authors for the Future - PYA-4F: The PYA-4F is our blueprint for the future and we've made progress on some parts of the framework - but it is very much work in progress. We've a PYA Beta Readers Facebook Group (by invitation only) and the PYA Blog contains useful information to help our members succeed in a crowded marketplace made more difficult - and in some ways easier - by the advent of AI. PYA-4F will be reviewed and if necessary updated in the coming year.

The PYA Finance report shows that PYA have £1,550.46 in net assets and our largest costs are insurance and technology.

PYA Committee: The committee and subcommittees resign at each AGM and those who wish can put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year. We also sought new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and sub-committees.

Paul Smith did not stand for election as Chair for 2026 and the committee thanked him, led by Mike Padgett, for his contribution to the formation and growth of PYA.

The committee for 2026 is:

• Core: Linda Jones (Chair), Paul Smith (Treasurer), Jane Clack, Kate Swann, Pam Golden and Ros Kind (Finance).
• Advisory: Joy Barnard, Yvonne Battle-Fenton, Lucy Brighton, Karen Drury, Phill Featherstone, Helen Jonson, Stuart Larner, Heike Phelan, Ian Walker. Mike Padgett retired and we thank him for his contribution to the growth of PYA. We welcomed Peter Kay into the advisory committee.
• Finance: Paul Smith (Treasurer), Ros Kind, Linda Jones, Kate Swann. Jane Clack retired from the finance subcommittee and we thank her for her contribution.
• Events Coordination: Paul Smith, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Pam Golden and Yvonne Battle- Fenton.

At this point Paul Smith handed over the meeting to the newly appointed chair, Linda Jones and we welcome Linda into her new position within PYA.

From the New Chair

How do we move forward in 2026?

Perfect, promote and popularise: The three principles that underlie all that we hope to achieve. Over the past few years, we have made substantial strides in all three areas.

Perfect

1. Encouraging authors to continue to improve their writing skills by participating in writing sessions, whether by Zoom or face-to-face. (Linda)
2. Encouraging participation in the Beta Reading scheme. (Pam)
3. With volunteers, draft broad outlines for the establishment of satellite groups, which encourage members to set up local writing groups, PYA offering support and guidance to do so. (Linda)
4. Offer face-to-face meetings to work on a particular topic, such as formatting, marketing, etc. Road-trip the meetings to different areas of Yorkshire to improve accessibility for everyone. (Pam)
5. Provide blog posts and ZOOM sessions that explain the fundamentals of manuscript formatting and independent publishing. (Linda)
6. Encouraging members to participate in producing anthologies aiming to demystify the process of publication and improve skills. (Jane)
7. Focus on selling eBooks - encouraging members to promote these through digital channels to sell more in addition to selling paper and hardback at events (Paul)
8. Arrange a PYA convention – 2027 (Jane)

Promote & Popularise

1. Produce relevant flyers and posters for events
2. Supporting the production of a video involving PYA members that showcases the work of PYA, events and members.
3. YouTube: Supporting members to produce a short film about themselves that could be included. Could be a monthly spotlight on an author?
4. Continue to produce and circulate the Espresso newsletter 
5. Offer guidance and support to members wishing to organise a book event, including Book launches and book fairs.
6. Social Media – Utilise other networks so we provide varied platforms where members can view us and participate.  Mastodon and Blue Sky potentially.
7. Increase awareness of PYA using Instagram. A volunteer to maintain the Instagram page on a regular basis.
8. Press release volunteer. Ensure local press, libraries, and appropriate agencies and magazines receive information about events. 
9. Map of Yorkshire – indicating where our members are situated so we can easily reference areas to organise future events. 

Volunteering for PYA

We are asking for volunteers to take part in a variety of opportunities - from leaflet distribution to journalistic input.

Volunteering for PYA can help to improve your own marketing and self-promotion skills. Whether it's for an individual or an organisation, the principles are the same.

Please review the list below and if you can contribute, contact us through the general email yorkshire.author.promotions@gmail.com. Once we have names, we will contact you with more details.

We need volunteers to help with

• Designing leaflets and flyers
• Writing promotional articles for magazines
• Venue finders throughout Yorkshire for events (large and small)
• Organising additional author events throughout Yorkshire.
• Organise training events in various locations
• Production of a promotional Video and Video shorts.
• -Social Media, including Instagram, Mastodon, and BlueSky
• Producing a Map showing where our authors are located for easy access.
• Anthologies - in all genres (ideas welcomed)

We know that commitment can be difficult, but the more of us involved, the lighter the load. So, thank you so much for taking the time to consider this, and I look forward to working with you in the future.