Submission Guidelines


All Zeno agents are currently CLOSED for submissions.

Please ensure that you read this message in its entirety before contacting us. We are unable to consider any submissions that do not follow these guidelines. Please also read the agents’ pages for additional submission guidelines.

If your book fits our current requirements, please email us the first three chapters (or an equivalent segment of around 50 double-spaced pages), a synopsis, and a covering letter. If you’ve already sent your book to Zeno and we did not take it further, please do not send it in again.

The chapters should be sent in .doc, .docx or PDF format, in a legible font (no smaller than 12pt), double spaced, and with the pages numbered. Please ensure your name, email address, and a contact number are on the title page. Please do not append the text of your submission into your email – we can only consider works that are sent as attachments in the requested formats. We do not accept adult novels of less than 75,000 words and children’s fiction should be no less than 50,000 words. 

The synopsis should not be proposed cover copy, but rather a simple explanation of the story, from chapter one to the end. This shouldn’t run over two pages.

The covering letter should include an ‘elevator pitch’ and a few lines about yourself and your writing career to date. Be sure to mention if you have sent another novel to Zeno before.

Zeno does not accept submissions by post. Please be sure to put ‘SUBMISSION [title of novel] by [name]’ in the subject line, then email it to the relevant agent’s email address when they are open for submission:

We will get back to you, but do ask for your patience. Our turnaround time is anything up to twelve weeks, longer if we’re busy with things like the London Book Fair or the World Fantasy Convention. If we wish to see a full manuscript, we’ll ask for it. If we decide that your submission is not for us, we’ll say so – but do please note that we’re not obliged to offer you any explanation. It’s simply not possible for us to critique or offer editorial advice on the submissions we receive.

If we think a submission might be of interest to one of our other agents, we will pass it on. Please only submit to one agent.