Irene Goodman Literary Agency

I didn't get the automated response for a query on 10/15. Should I requery now or wait until the 2 month mark to do it?

I've never gotten an automated response, nor have I ever gotten a response when submitting to their generic submissions address. It's been 2 months since my last submission (which was my 4th time).

Miriam has had my full since April, which seems really long compared to the experiences of others. I've sent several status queries with no response either.

Hi, just thought I'd pitch in my experience with this agency. Jon Sternfeld's assistant requested a partial on 11/30. I got a nice R today.

Also, regarding agents that hold a ms for months and do not respond to nudges: I have been in a similar situation with an agent and I told a bestselling writer about it. She told me a funny story of a friend of hers that (back in the pre-internet days) waited one whole year and then finally called the agency and she was told that the agent had quit and changed job. Good thing now we have email!!!

Has anyone else gotten a delivery failure message lately? I tried twice, copying the address directly from their submissions page, but both times received a message saying it had failed. Any suggestions? Or is this just one of those they might have a full inbox or something so just wait things?

Athough its moot at this point, I just got a reject on my full from Irene. Nice things to say. I do wish I would have landed with this agency. Had a near miss with D. Mass too, who wrote a very nice letter.

Tri

Alright, I just tried again today and it looks like it finally went through. I'm not sure why, but it took about four or five days. I think they might have had a full inbox, but it could also have been because of the title of my book, so I changed the subject line. It looks like it didn't bounce back this time, though. Thanks guys.

I lied. It bounced, just took longer this time. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do in a situation like this? I don't know if it's just me and my mail is bouncing because of my title or something like that, or if it's a problem with their email and it's not working. I can't send it snail mail because they don't accept them, and obviously calling to ask what's going on wouldn't be an option. Would it be a really bad thing to send a message to her personal email (I don't know if she would even read it if I wasn't a client) and ask about it? Obviously if it's affecting everyone then they would already know, because I imagine not receiving any queries for five days would be a bit of a tip-off. I've scoured her site many times and haven't seen anything saying they're out of the office or not accepting queries, so I'm not sure what's going on.

One possible explanation could be that your email provider does not have a permanent IP address. Some servers identify mobile IP addresses as spams and automatically reject it. Have you tried querying from a gmail address?

Even from yahoo? That's possible, though dang if so. I thought loads of people have yahoo addresses. I have a gmail account, though I haven't really used it (needed it for a Google Docs thing we're doing at work). I guess I could try that out and see. How do you find out if you have a permanent IP address?

Okay, I just wanted to share that I still haven't managed to make this work. I've tried from two separate email accounts (one was gmail) and each time I get a system delivery failure that directs me to a gmail help page for bulk senders. I've tried varying my subject line as well in case something there was causing it to bounce back and that hasn't worked either. I'm at a complete loss and I guess I'm the only one having problems with it. The only thing that I can think is something in the query itself is somehow getting it rejected, which is strange.

Call them and ask them if, given the circumstances, you can send them a snail mail query.

I sent an email to her actual email address asking about it, but I never got a response. :/ I really don't want to be annoying about it, but I'd hate to just cross a name off my list just because of something like this.

I have been having trouble as well. I have tried changing my subject line and the line spacing of the content, but I still get my email kicked back. Any ideas?

On February 26th, I sent a query/10pg/syn pasted into the body of my email, with my subject line stating "Query", the title of my book and ATTN Barbara Poelle. I didn't receive confirmation (but I wasn't necessarily expecting one) but my mail didn't bounce back either. Janet Reid did tell me Barbara was away at a conference last weekend, but that's about it.

I'm assuming it went through.

Hmm, it looks like the only difference between yours and mine is the subject line. I just put Query. I'll try it again with what you did. Thanks for your feedback!

Just submitted to Barbara Poelle. Realized two minutes later that I'd sent the query, the first ten pages, and no synopsis. Re-sent right away.

Maybe they'll both get bumped back and I'll be able to try again and they won't know the difference...

Okay, I give. Tried again, but still getting kicked back.

Sometimes quick fingers are a curse, eh? I'd like to hear if yours goes through. Good luck, though!

What's up, everybody! New here, as you can see from my post total.

Anybody have any updates or anything else about the IG agency?

I sent an equery about a month ago, nothing yet. lol. I actually sent another one about a week ago, addressed to M. Kriss from another email acct. after reading some of the posts and the possibility of the spam filter thing.

I guess they're not even sending R notices anymore, at least from what I've read currently from their site.

Anyway, great to be here.

I sent a query on the 5th and I didn't get an error message. Did I do something right?

Hi Lawrence, welcome to the Cooler.

I sent Miriam a query the beginning of January and haven't heard anything back, but it looks like she has about a three month average on responses, so I'm still holding out hope.

Also, according to Querytracker.com, their email seems to be acting up and has been since some time in January.

Anaquana said:

Hi Lawrence, welcome to the Cooler.

I sent Miriam a query the beginning of January and haven't heard anything back, but it looks like she has about a three month average on responses, so I'm still holding out hope.

Also, according to Querytracker.com, their email seems to be acting up and has been since some time in January.

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Hi Ana! Thanks for the welcome. What do you mean by acting up, like not receiving emails or something?

From what I've read here it seems to be all over the map as to when they respond. Hope you hear something.

mtrenteseau said:

I sent a query on the 5th and I didn't get an error message. Did I do something right?

Click to expand...

Maybe their email wasn't full this time. But what the hell do I know.

People seem to be getting failure notices and spam email from them. Someone on querytracker said they got an email from her for a free steak dinner.

Man... I want a free steak dinner. Mmm... *licks lips*

And I hope you hear something from her as well.