March 2008 Update

I finally got caught up (through early February submissions) for the Winter 2008 issue of Heliotrope (issue#4). Including material received thus far after that we have received something around 1400 submissions in all. This does not mean there will be 1400 responses however. There is a chance that if you have no recieved a response yet your story is under consideration - but none of those are more than 30 days old. The reality is that there will be more like 1300 because as I have mentioned before we are seeing a few of the same issues, and I just want to go through several scenarios to keep in mind for the future if interested in submitting to the ‘Trope:


If you send multiple submissions either at the same time within one email or before the dead period (7 days) is over between submissions all of them will be deleted. I can’t say I’ll catch them all but some usual suspects have surfaced.


I had a few people who sent their story with a message that resembled, “I hope you don’t mind if I skip the extra info you ask for.” The answer is no, I don’t mind at all. Unread deletion is by far a slush pile’s best friend.


I’m not reading stories that are in the body of an email.


Stories that exceed our word limit will not be read and be deleted.


This is odd but has happened more than a few times. I understand that there are certainly couples that both write (Clarke and Greenwood, as do Link and Grant come to mind) but if I get 4 submissions at the same time from one email account, one apparently from yourself, your wife, your son and your daughter I’m going to play the odds and role with common sense. The only thing better than unread deletion is mass unread deletion. We make families disappear, so unless your Stephen King and Joe Hill don’t test the clicker finger!


Serials. Look, Heliotrope is a new publication and we also pay a decent rate, I get that and understand we are going to get hit with every offer that everyone else has already turned down. While people have to understand that while I don’t mind reading these we aren’t going to commit to some 24 part saga unless we are presented with an opportunity that is unbelievable for us and would better our product. Heliotrope has prided itself in publishing stories by new talent but in a situation regarding serials – people this publication is free and we have limited slots for fiction. We could only make such a move if such a project would bankroll our operation. So if Zelazny rises from the dead and wants to continue the Amber stories, if Pratchett decides he wants to do Discworld stories, or if Brian Michael Bendis wants to do Powers here, or Neil Gaiman wants to go crazy here or Bill Waterson wants to bring Spaceman Spiff to our pages - Unless the news is damn near hitting Yahoo’s front page consider a serial to be remarkably unlikely. Heliotrope does not have a large corporation or sister publication to bankroll our mediocrity. We are not homeless – but we are all a house or two (or three) away from being such.


I get numerous people who tell me “this is also under consideration elsewhere”. Deleted.


I get questions about content a lot. Unless you blaspheme my name or that of my family or do something silly like make fun of the Dark Knight or Miracleman I don’t care what type of story you write or what language (in terms of profanity) you use. If your story is hot it’s hot. Genocide, orgies, killing pitbulls you own – I’m grown and this is fiction, you’re not going to disturb me. One submitted was apparently a model and she sent pictures – as long as you’re not under contract with Lane Bryant (speaking for myself – Brian might be a chub-chaser – I don’t know) and realize the editors at the ‘Trope are straight males - those are not frowned upon! It won’t help you, but it makes the Slush Pile more interesting!


It’s clearly we stated that we do not (knowingly) publish reprints. This includes poems. Now could this change at any given moment? Sure, anything can, but it would have to be some extreme circumstance.


One of the big issues that has come up involves what is the deciding factor for a work being unpublished. I can’t speak for other publications but at Heliotrope the final decision lies with Brian and I. I can’t come up with a blanket, concrete, policy that makes sense considering the variety of circumstances that exist. The key concern has been online writing critique sites and stories that have spent a long time posted at such places and where they stand with us. All I can say is in a perfect world I’d like that not to be a factor, but for obvious reasons I lean against it. The reality is that an awful lot of people utilize such venues and they will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Somebody did ask me what the difference was between such sites and a story floating around Clarion. I didn’t reply because it seemed rather obvious to me.


In none of these cases (regarding submission format) should you expect to be contacted. I used to contact everyone but the numbers don’t allow me to go above and beyond on situations the guidelines are clear on. I used to contact people regarding such situations but it’s simply not a possibility with the amount of participation we are seeing. Obviously if I have an issue with opening your story in an otherwise proper submission I will let you know.


Furthermore, while Heliotrope has a no discrimination policy, the likelihood of getting published under names like Dawn Dragon, Blade Orgre, Dorothy Drow, Jenny Jedi are slim here. Horror writers. I’m, talking to you! No more Han Ted Houses! As George Carlin said they aren’t real names, however, if former Providence point guard God Shamgod or race car driver Dick Trickle wishes to send a story they are more than welcome. Don’t be the pirate in Dodgeball. It’s silly. If you’re name is John Smith or Chikizee – write under it. Fake names are awesome to as long as it seems like it’s not your Smurf Village name as while I wouldn’t mind Matthew Stover, Karen Travis or Sean Stewart submitting to Heliotrope – Mace Windu, Obi-Wan, and Sedriss (for the real fans) are not welcome. I actually knew an otherwise reasonable human being whose real, given name was Butter Cakes – she can’t send a story either. If your last name is Vader I’m jealous enough not to see you ever get published anyway.


WARNING: I’m about to do my Damon impression…


I also want to stress the importance of ads and donations for Heliotrope. As I said before, we are a free publication and we simply cannot survive without them. While we have FBS income to offset the Heliotrope cost, in a perfect world we’d love to get this operation paying for itself. So if anyone has ties with Microsoft or Coke tell them a simple donation of $4,000 annually will not only cover Heliotrope for a year but lets us expand in a couple of directions and allow us to funnel FBS funds to other ideas we have. So basically call 799 friends and donate $5.00 every year and you will be doing Karma uplifting stuff. We are a publication that wants to keep paying decent rates and we will not consider lowering our pay structure. We either move up or we don’t move at all. We always thing expansion, we are not where we want to be yet, though we are pleased with our progress so far. The more we make, the more magazine content there will be, it’s not a situation of more in our pocket.


All that said, we should get Heliotrope 4 wrapped soon (just need a couple of stories) and Damon, Dave, Brian and I will start looking at the 5th issue and I want to thank everyone for all the support and enthusiasm.


- Jay Tomio