Irene Goodman Literary Agency

I queried Miriam for the 3rd time using a different email address. Still no response on any of them.

Miriam Kriss

Queried Ms. Kriss on the 4th, form rejected by the agency on the 14th.

Thank you for your query. We appreciate you sharing your work with our agency.
We did review your proposal, and unfortunately we are going to pass on representing it. The premise just didn't resonate with us as much as we would have liked. We wish you the best in your search for representation. Your book deserves an agent who can put the requisite enthusiasm behind it.
We appreciate the hard work and diligence needed to get in the door, and since this is a highly subjective business, you may well find success elsewhere. We wish you all the best with your writing.
Regards,

The Irene Goodman Literary Agency

Pretty sure this is their standard form reject, whether the premise is really the crux of their problem with the story or not. So if you get this letter, don't obsess about your premise being uninteresting. I've gotten responses from five other agents, so it was interesting enough for them.
The key word is subjective.

It's their normal R letter, don't let it worry you.

Miriam Kriss

I follow these boards avidly; however, just decided to join so I can participate with you all. What a wide range of information and wonderful personalities!

Okay, for my question. After meeting Barbara Poelle at a conference, I submitted my full paranormal romance to her which, three months later, she sent me an email saying how much she LOVED (yes, in all caps) my story but she didn't rep this type of story; however, she forwarded it to Miriam Kriss and that if Miriam didn't bite, she'd give me more names. She suggested I email Miriam about the forwarded full - I did.

This was all in January of this year. Two weeks ago, after Miriam had the full for four months (she never emailed me to say she got it, etc. which is no big deal - I just have to hope she did) I sent a very PC status request and copied Barbara and have heard nothing.

Now that I've bored you with my long story, here's my concern after reading these boards - I sent it to Miriam's personal email. Do you all think I should send a status request email to their general submissions email?

Is four months average for Miriam? Looks like she rejected some queries fast (sorry gang!).

Any advice? Yes, I am working on other stuff but I'd like resolution from Miriam - hopefully it would be representation but if not, I'd like to move on to get the other names Barbara is recommending.

Thanks!

Does anyone have an idea how long Irene Goodman would like a "detailed synopsis" to be? I've seen lots of different interpretations of this phrase.

Cassie, Miriam is pretty quick on turnaround from what I've heard (and I was talking with her at a conference just about a month ago), so yes, I would try the general submission email.

TinneyH said:

Does anyone have an idea how long Irene Goodman would like a "detailed synopsis" to be? I've seen lots of different interpretations of this phrase.

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TinneyH I'm not really sure. I just sent my query with the first 10 pages and a synopsis to Miriam and my synopsis is about 5 pages long. I have a shorter one, 2 pages and 1 page but I really feel like the 5 page is the best. Besides, 5 pages is pretty detailed, I think.
Good luck!

Thanks. Five pages was going to be my guess, so I'm glad somebody else thinks that could be about right, too. I am finding I really hate writing synopses of any length. Books are really a lot easier.

TinneyH said:

Thanks. Five pages was going to be my guess, so I'm glad somebody else thinks that could be about right, too. I am finding I really hate writing synopses of any length. Books are really a lot easier.

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LOL....a lot of us say the same thing. I would rather write an entire new book than write a synopsis.

Queried J. Sternfeld on 5/26, got request for full on 5/27, got their infamous form reject on 6/11. It would have been nice to get some authentic feedback on a full, but at least he didn't keep me hanging.

AllieB said:

Cassie, Miriam is pretty quick on turnaround from what I've heard (and I was talking with her at a conference just about a month ago), so yes, I would try the general submission email.

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This is not my experience. I've queried her 3 times since 8/30/08 (from 2 different email addresses) and she's never responded.

Erin said:

This is not my experience. I've queried her 3 times since 8/30/08 (from 2 different email addresses) and she's never responded.

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That's very unlike Miriam.

dragonjax said:

That's very unlike Miriam.

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That's what I keep hearing and the reason why I requeried using a 2nd email address, in case my emails weren't getting thru. I know other emails have gone thru, because I queried Barbara Poelle and she responded with a nice referral. Oh well...time to move on.

I met Miriam at a conference. Today I finally got my work where it is decent enough to sub. We'll see if she answers me with anything other than the R word.

Cassie Knight said:

After meeting Barbara Poelle at a conference, I submitted my full paranormal romance to her which, three months later, she sent me an email saying how much she LOVED (yes, in all caps) my story but she didn't rep this type of story; however, she forwarded it to Miriam Kriss and that if Miriam didn't bite, she'd give me more names. She suggested I email Miriam about the forwarded full - I did.

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Barbara is a class act all the way. She helped me with my full manuscript, utlimately passing on it. But she recommended other agents and put in a good word for me. One of the recommendations became my agent and I got a deal in June. So congrats on impressing her, and I hope it works out for you.

Sent a query to Miriam 6/18, got an unsigned request for the full on 6/23.

Got a nice rejection today from Jon Sternfeld. Who as far as I can tell doesn't even rep fantasy, though he did say he'd want to take another look at it if I streamlined it. I guess my novel could be considered literary fantasy, and he does rep literary fiction.

I'm going to wander away looking mildly confused now and perhaps have a cup of tea.

I received an email from an assistant at this agency requesting a partial when my novel is ready to be seen. I'm not yet querying and I'm trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but has anyone heard of them doing this? I'm assuming the request was in response to one of my published short fiction pieces, but there's a part of me thinking, "This just doesn't happen."

jhtatroe said:

I received an email from an assistant at this agency requesting a partial when my novel is ready to be seen. I'm not yet querying and I'm trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but has anyone heard of them doing this? I'm assuming the request was in response to one of my published short fiction pieces, but there's a part of me thinking, "This just doesn't happen."

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Wow! That's exciting. It does seem a little strange. But I've read in interviews that newer agents will often find clients by reading published short stories and contacting writers of those that they like. I know agents approach bloggers and media people for non-fiction books all the time.

So get excited!

Thank you for your query. We appreciate you sharing your work with our agency.

We did review your proposal, and unfortunately we are going to pass on representing it. The premise just didn't resonate with us as much as we would have liked. We wish you the best in your search for representation. Your book deserves an agent who can put the requisite enthusiasm behind it.

We appreciate the hard work and diligence needed to get in the door, and since this is a highly subjective business, you may well find success elsewhere. We wish you all the best with your writing.

Regards,

The Irene Goodman Literary Agency

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This is what I received from them today after I queried them 10 days ago. At first I was surprised that, of all things, they had issues with my premise. One thing my book doesn't lack is a unique premise. Then I remembered what I'd read about them on AW and quickly checked this thread and... yup, that's their form R.

I'm with those who said they'd take a short "Thanks, but no thanks." over misleading criticism

I emailed Barbara Poelle with query+synopis+first 10 pages back on 4/20/2009; just got a form rejection today (7/29/2009). So even though their guidelines said 1-2 months, this was 3 months for me. Same form letter as others.

I queried Miriam Kriss on June 19, and received a form R on July 2.

When I queried her agency - I got the same rejection form. Throws you off at first I am glad that it is their default form letter.

Anahid21 said:

This is what I received from them today after I queried them 10 days ago. At first I was surprised that, of all things, they had issues with my premise. One thing my book doesn't lack is a unique premise. Then I remembered what I'd read about them on AW and quickly checked this thread and... yup, that's their form R.

I'm with those who said they'd take a short "Thanks, but no thanks." over misleading criticism

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I queried them last year, July 2008, and about two weeks later got their form r. I guess there's lots and lots of premises that just don't resonate with them.

It seems to be their standard rejection form. I got one too, but it's fine, I now have an agent.

Their loss