Martha Webb, Proprietor & Literary Agent

Martha is actively seeking
Upmarket commercial fiction
Narrative non-fiction of all kinds, but especially investigative reporting, adventure, and science & nature
Literary fiction
Martha is currently not seeking
Children’s books or YA
Martha Webb is an agent and co-owner of CookeMcDermid. Her list comprises literary fiction, upmarket commercial fiction and a broad range of non-fiction, including investigative journalism, memoir with a particular focus, popular science, history and philosophy, and some self-help. She is drawn to rebels and contrarians with a good sense of humour, and to books that are topical, deal with important issues, or strive for social betterment while also being great reads. She values distinctive voices and good storytelling, in whatever form. Her clients include: Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Jen Agg, Michael Crummey, Claudia Dey, Robyn Doolittle, Sonya Lalli, Tracey Lindberg, Carol Off, Shannon Lee Simmons, Saeed Teebi, and Britt Wray.
Martha began her career in publishing in 2005 with The McDermid Agency, of which she later assumed co-ownership prior to the creation of CookeMcDermid. She holds an MA in literature from the University of Edinburgh, and was born and raised in Montreal.
Martha’s Represented Books and Authors Includes
Martha’s Recent Deals
Canada English rights to multiple award-winning journalist and former CBC radio host Carol Off’s AT A LOSS FOR WORDS: WHY WE CAN’T TALK TO EACH OTHER, a blend of history, culture, politics and front-line reporting structured around six words whose meanings have been distorted and weaponized, including “freedom,” “democracy” and “truth,” and how we need to reclaim their value in order to find our way back to civility…
Leméac Éditeur has acquired French in North America rights to Michael Crummey’s THE ADVERSARY in an exclusive submission…
Award-winning author of Caught Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen’s co-authored memoir about the latter’s four-year incarceration from the age of 13 at the Whitbourne School for Boys in St. John’s in the 1970s, where he was subjected to long bouts of solitary confinement and brutal beatings, and how he managed to find love on the other side, turn his life around and seek justice for those lost years with the help of his daughter, whose father’s experiences inspired her career in law…
Toronto Star crime reporter Jennifer Pagliaro’s GIRLS, INTERRUPTED, a true crime narrative examining the recent rash of teen violence, specifically focusing on the alleged swarming attack of Ken Lee, who was experiencing homelessness, at the hands of eight teenage girls, taking readers from the night of the murder to the girls’ arrest and eventual trial, and interrogating how we reconcile a brutal murder with a broken youth justice system…