Doctors: how to get a literary agent

“Can you introduce me to your agent?”Doctor-authors say they get asked this pretty regularly by colleagues. They often find themselves explaining that anyone can pitch a literary agent but there is a structure to query letters—and usually more pre-pitch work than expected to be done.Dr. Jillian Horton, whose book We Are All Perfectly Fine was published by HarperCollins in 2022, said she hears from lots of doctors who say they want to be a writer and ask how to get started.“The first thing I always say to people is: It’s not a contemplative act. You have to get it out of your brain and onto a page,” Dr. Horton said. Key is first figuring out what you want to accomplish, she said. Writing for an external goal—“I want to be a famous bestselling author”—usually won’t sustain you, because the likelihood of that happening is so small, Dr. Horton said.But, she said, “If you figure out what your internal goal is—maybe it is to make people feel less alone, to encourage, to inspire—then it becomes separate from this (big goal) ‘climb Mount Everest.’ You’ve got a bite-sized piece.”Dr. Horton said a column she did for CMAJ blogs, “was probably the most important thing I ever wrote. Why? Because when I wrote that column, it gave me a ‘play space,’ and I found my voice.” For years she also wrote drafts of a fiction book that ultimately was never published.But all that work meant that when she got ready to send a query letter for We Are All Perfectly Fine, she quickly got representation (her agent is Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists, who also represents Yann Martel). She said people often say to her: “‘Oh, you must have had an in,’ (but) no, I never met my agent (before pitching).”After that, it all went quickly. “From the time I pitched her, signed with her and the book got sold (after an exclusive submission), I don’t even think that was eight weeks. . . . but what people don’t see is the 10 years before that.”Value of an agentHost of the CBC radio show White Coat, Black Art, Dr. Brian Goldman, who is currently writing the first draft to his fifth book, credits much of his success to his agent, Rick Broadhead, who has represented him for nearly two decades.Dr. Goldman emphasizes that agents are more than just middlemen—they are navigators in the ever-changing publishing landscape. “A successful agent knows the market and can evaluate your book (proposal) as to how in tune it is with the market. That includes knowing what similarly-themed books have been sold, written, green-lit, are about to be published, etc.,” Dr. Goldman explained in an email interview. As well as negotiating your contract, “An agent is your confidant. Writers tend to be a bit introverted and reflective. Writing a book is a long and often lonely process. Having an agent you get along with helps with that.”Query lettersDr. Michael Simon, an FP in Saint John, N.B., said he’d been attending writing conferences and occasionally getting his short science fiction published in magazines and anthologies for years. He also wrote a couple of novels and thought he was ready to get an agent. So he researched agents who represent the kind of sci-fi books he writes and pitched a few of them.“There’s a very specific structure to a query letter, telling the agent who you are,” Dr. Simon said: “A little (hook) paragraph, a blurb about the book, what credit you have, if any, and you may compare it to other books in the same genre. For example, I compared mine to The Martian and The Expanse.”His persistence paid off. “Three years ago, I received an offer from an American agent to represent my work, and last year, she sold two of my books!”That agent had asked to see the full manuscript (you have to have the finished product done before pitching for fiction) after reading his initial query. Getting signed is a big deal: Agents generally don’t have huge numbers of authors. “My agent has 20 clients,” Dr. Simon said. He noted that agents want to represent authors for more than just one book.Now he has two science fiction series, a total of five books, coming out next year. First Command, published by Aethon Books, will be launched in February. Extinction, by Podium Entertainment, will be released in April.Finding a literary agent may seem daunting, but as these physician-authors demonstrate, doctors make great writers and with some persistence, it is achievable.

Doctors: how to get a literary agent

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