Hello again, As I was posting my broken-bones questions, I realized that perhaps a better way to get stuff like that answered would be to talk to an actual medical expert. The problem is, I'm not 100% sure how to go about things like that. I never write anything that's too detailed or in-depth in terms of medical, law, mechanical or technological items, etc. but I also want what I do write to be accurate. I know as a reader, I get frustrated when someone has some basic information wrong. As I write more for fun than profit or pay, I'm not in a position to go around paying doctors and lawyers large sums to answer questions, but at the same time they are professionals and deserve to get paid for their time. This forum is helpful in a lot of instances, but not all. Wondering if there are tried & true ways of getting questions answered via forums, phone calls, etc. Thank you.
In that particular case a medical forum is probably a good call... also non fiction books about medicine, autobiographies by medics and doctors, blogs, you tube etc In general if i did want to contact a particular expert i'd just email them , or hit them up on a social media dm and just say Hi my name is x, i'm an author writing a book about abc, i wondered if you'd be good enough to answer a few questions about speciality. Course not everyone says yes... and some say only if you pay me, but a suprising number of people are happy to help free and some have gone on to become actual friends. The key is to be polite and nice to deal with, and to express since gratitude and thanks after they help you... acknowlege their help in the back matter, send them a signed copy free and so forth
It all depends upon what you are going to research, of course. For military background I hit VFW and other veterans groups, buy a few drinks and ask questions. I want to keep my current sci-fi WIP based in reality as much as I can; my biggest problem was actually visualizing my military campaigns between star systems. An email to an astrophysicist got me a link to a 3D model of the known galaxy. (It's really cool, BTW, with a reasonable access price.) It's amazing how much you can find on YouTube, Quora and other places. Even if they don't have the specific information I need, they at least lead me to the right people so I can ask the right questions. So, Fronzizzle, my suggestion would be to do some basic research to familiarize yourself with the basics - terminology, processes etc. - so you can ask directed questions. Then contact a local "celebrity" doctor (i.e., someone who appears as the health expert on the local TV news) with a polite, concise letter explaining who you are, what you want to know, and can they direct you to someone who can help. As Moose said, many people are actually very happy to help.
contact medical libraries and university libraries. They have researchers and specialist who, by job description, will find resources for what you need. They are also better able to get in contact with experts in the event that they cannot find adequate information for you. example: I am a public librarian. i received an email from a writer in TX who is writing a non-fiction. one of his leads brought him my way. he was looking for records on a WWII soldier and his family who moved from TX to my city. I was able to find census records in our database as well as news paper articles on the family and photos. i was also able to find ex-wives and girlfriends (to which the author said he would reach out to them and interview them on the soldier's life). the family did move elsewhere, but because of medical records, I was able to pinpoint where. I reached out to that institute who would have better information on tht aspect of the family's life and pointed the writer in that direction. in addition, I've had to reach out to a research librarian across the state because of their huge database and research collection. I after chatting with that librarian for a while, i was able to tell the person what that library offered and to put them in contact with a researcher there. you're more likely to get an answer from a specialty librarian than a busy medical professional.
