Sowing Discord. Join Me!
By Laurie McLean, SFWC Director and Founding Agent at Fuse Literary
This awful pandemic (I even hate typing the word) has abruptly forced us to change a lot of things in our lives. But besides the obvious negative things, it also left some space for new habits and new ideas to creep in. One of the new things I have been trying out over the past year is using Discord, an online community conversation app that had its beginnings in the gaming industry but has since spread to pretty much every other industry as well.
It started as a simple idea. The final Monday of each month I would make myself available “live” to answer questions about publishing from anyone who cared to ask. We call it THE LAST MONDAY AMA WITH LAURIE MCLEAN. AMA means Ask Me Anything, and while simple, it is also true. I get questions on all aspects of publishing, agenting and writers conferences. They have ranged from questions about the publishing industry supply chain problems to defining upmarket fiction. From newbie questions about editing to sophisticated questions about the three-act structure of plotting.
What has been surprising to me has been how much fun it is for me to answer these questions and how much knowledge I actually have on these topics. When we began I said to myself, “Hey, if you don’t know the answer to something it’s perfectly fine to say that. Perhaps you could research it and add an answer in later. People should be fine with that.” But after 17 years as an agent, I guess I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge along the way.
We have a year’s worth of questions and answers on the San Francisco Writers Conference Discord server and I highly recommend scanning through some of it to see if your questions have already been answered. And if you want a fun way to pass an hour, and perhaps learn something in the process, join us on the last Monday of each month from noon to 1 pm Pacific Time. Yes, you have to join the free app to participate, but that shouldn’t be a problem for anyone. You can even use a fake name and fun gravatar to protect your identity. However, if you want to join to disrupt and troll us, I should warn you. We have a person or two who will stop that foolishness right away.
And in case people get tired of hearing me “speak”, we also will feature some guest answerers this year. The February AMA host is Eric Smith, an agent at P.S. Literary and the author of some award-winning YA novels. Eric was at the last SFWC conference in 2020 and he so impressed me with this flexibility, accessibility (I always saw him talking, and better yet listening, to attendees) and sheer generosity. I’d have him back every year if he’d come!
Anyway, mark your calendars and join the Last Monday AMA, this next time with Eric Smith. See you on Discord!
Laurie spent 20 years as the CEO of a multi-million dollar marketing agency and 8 years as an agent/senior agent at Larsen
Pomada Literary Agents before co-founding Fuse Literary in 2013 with her business partner Gordon Warnock.
At Fuse Lit Laurie specializes in middle grade, young adult and adult genre fiction including romance, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, suspense, thrillers, and westerns.
Laurie is also the Director of the San Francisco Writers Conference, in its 18th year, and co-founded two ePublishing companies (now sold): Joyride Books for romance, and Ambush Books for tween and teen books. Find out more at FuseLiterary.com or on Instagram at fuseliterary, and on Twitter @FuseLiterary and @AgentSavant.
