Shark Marketing Co. CEO Shari Stauch has been involved in publishing, marketing and PR for 30 years. She is the co-creator of Pool & Billiard Magazine, celebrating 27 years as the sport's oldest monthly magazine. In 2004 she retired from the Women's Pro Billiard Tour after a 20 year career as a top player and marketer/co-creator of the tour (inducted into the WPBA Hall of Fame in 2007) to pursue development of Shark Marketing Co. and serve a growing community of writers and authors.
Stauch and team member Brenda McClain produced the South Carolina Writer's Conference in 2004, setting new attendance/income records. As a board member of Charleston's Center for Women, she is a moderator for the Center's Writer Series, and conducts seminars for the Center on website marketing and image branding.
In 2008, Stauch signed on as Co-Director of Programming for Words & Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans, and worked with team member Kendra Haskins to re-launch the organization's website. The elite writers conference drew international attention with over three dozen speakers, including the legendary Ted Turner, and Michael Lang, creator behind the Woodstock music festival. In 2009 the festival featured author Dennis Lehane and also broke new attendance records, featuring the nation's best and brightest agents and editors as well as promising authors from around the globe.
Stauch continues to work with the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society as well as with agents, editors, writers and aspiring authors throughout the U.S., using her marketing and PR talents to help authors broaden their audiences, and publishers realize greater sales potential.
Stauch is a certified executive coach, an award-winning essayist and fiction writer, and author of four non-fiction books. She is working on completion of a novel set in her hometown of Chicago, IL.
Kendra Haskins, founder of web development and graphic design company Kendra Haskins Design, is an avid supporter of the literary and theatre arts.
When she's not busy building websites and creating brands for companies, organizations, and authors, Haskins enjoys contributing to the community through volunteering with causes that help women of all ages, and supporting local theater.
After she graduated from Duke University, Haskins relocated to San Diego where she worked as the Graphics Coordinator and Webmaster for the Old Globe Theatre and later as an Art Director with Tehabi Publishing designing interiors and covers for their coffee table books. She came back to the Southeast in 2006 where her keen talent is well appreciated throughout the Charleston area; you can barely look through a publication without seeing something she has created.
She has also been designing websites since 1997 and assisting clients with not only their web presence but also their use of online social media. Some of her clients include the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry, Barrier Island Eco-Tours, the College of Charleston, Ashley Bakery and Carolina Destination Properties.
In 2008 Haskins retooled the website for the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society, allowing for better promotion of its annual Words & Music: A Literary Arts Festival.
As a team member of Shark Marketing Co., Haskins has created a series of author templates that allow for the implementation of custom websites for new and aspiring authors at a fraction of the custom website price!
Brenda McClain founded and is president of McClain Communications, Inc., established in 1990 as a communications consulting firm, specializing in Message Development and Delivery. She has worked with Algonquin and Workman authors for �Today Show� and �Good Morning America� appearances, as well as preparing authors prior to book tour launches.
Her media training clients have included Workman Publishing, AT&T, CIBA Vision, Turner Broadcasting, Georgia Pacific, The Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Marriott International, The Kentucky Department of Education, Telecom Pioneers, Arthritis Foundation, Cincinnati Reds, Career Sports & Marketing, Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Army. In addition, the NCAA Foundation selected her to write the Media Relations component for its Life Skills Program, aimed at preparing student-athletes across the country for life after college.
Before forming McClain Communications, Ms. McClain handled reporters from diverse print and broadcast media including Fortune magazine, the Wall Street Journal and "ABC World News Tonight." She has worked as a radio and television reporter and anchor in various markets in the Southeast as well as a newspaper reporter for a daily in South Carolina.
Besides her experience in media training authors and journalists, Ms. McClain also is an award-winning fiction writer. She is completing her second novel, a work of fiction set in her home state, South Carolina.
