Submission Guidelines

We are always looking for the finest in commercial and literary fiction and non-fiction. We have a strong background in women's voices, including mysteries, romance, women's fiction, thrillers, and suspense.

Irene is particularly interested in historical fiction with a hook, female-driven thrillers, and popular or narrative non-fiction. Miriam is passionate about modern urban fantasy, Barbara is especially looking for thrillers, mysteries, historical romance, literary fiction, and platform-driven non-fiction, including the occasional memoir, and Jon is looking for intelligent, literary fiction and narrative non-fiction that addresses historical, social, or cultural issues.

If you have a manuscript that you would like to send us, please first ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this manuscript in the best possible shape? Do I believe it is ready to sell, or am I just testing the waters?
2. Have I completed the manuscript?
3. Does it fit the guidelines of the kinds of books this agency represents?

If you can answer yes to all of the above, then please do the following:

Send a query letter and the first ten pages, along with a detailed synopsis of the entire book, in the body of an email to queries@irenegoodman.com.

You will hear from us in one to two months. If we are interested in your work, we will contact you and ask to see the entire manuscript. If we are not interested, you will receive a form letter. We are genuinely sorry that we have to use a form letter, but we get far too many submissions to make personal responses possible. We are receiving an unprecedented amount of e-mail queries. E-mail queries to our personal addresses will not be answered.

All submissions should be sent by e-mail. We do not consider snail mail queries. We expect a professional presentation that fits basic industry standards.

Please do not send anything other than the requested materials. If you send several chapters or a complete manuscript, we will have to delete it. Because we are receiving over 50 queries a day, the system is getting overloaded.

Please do not submit your query to more than one of our agents.