Heliotrope?

[Mr. Tweedy]

Has anyone here ever made a submission to Heliotrope magazine?

I found it in my ever more desperate quest to get something published somewhere and sent them a story, but they never sent me a confirmation email.  Hence, I don't know if they actually received my electronically submitted story or if it was caught up in a filter and tossed in a junk box with offers for cheap Viagra^® and low-interest loans.  I tried writing from another address, but nothing.

Does anyone know if this is their normal procedure?

[hautdesert]

I don't think Heliotrope sends confirmation emails.  Not everyone does, though it's awfully nice when they do, isn't it.

I feed my sub fretting by watching the stats on dutrope--  http://duotrope.com

Not everyone who subs reports to duotrope, of course, but sometimes you can get a good idea of whether a market is actively responding, or maybe sitting on a pile of subs, or what.  It also lets you know what the current average return times are, so you can put a limit on the fretting.  I find it useful, anyway.

[Rachel Swirsky]

Heliotrope has irregular fits and starts of actually responding to things, IIRC.

[Alasdair5000]

Has anyone here ever made a submission to Heliotrope magazine?

I found it in my ever more desperate quest to get something published somewhere and sent them a story, but they never sent me a confirmation email.  Hence, I don't know if they actually received my electronically submitted story or if it was caught up in a filter and tossed in a junk box with offers for cheap Viagra^® and low-interest loans.  I tried writing from another address, but nothing.

Does anyone know if this is their normal procedure?

   As has been previously said, Heliotrope don't send confirmation emails.  For what it's worth, don't worry too much about whether or not they got it.  Palimpsest is absolutely right, they tend to go radio silent for long periods, largely because the whole thing's a largely one-man operation.  If you've still not heard by the middle of December, I'd suggest a polite request for info and then if nothing, leave it till the new year.

[Mr. Tweedy]

I wouldn't care so much if not for their "no simultaneous submissions" policy.  If I'm going to be not-submitting to other markets, I'd like to be sure there's a good reason for it.  I'd suggest they turn on their mail program's auto-reply feature, but I'd have to get a message through to do that.

Oh well.  At least now I can now assume that they probably got it.

[goatkeeper]

My Heliotrope reject took about 2 and a half months.  Quicker than EP's will be :-)

[Rachel Swirsky]

Quicker than EP's will be.

Right, but the nice thing about (most) EP subs is that they're reprints, so whether or not you sell is just gravy.

Mr. Tweedy, I suggest hanging around at the rumor mill on Speculations (http://www.speculations.com) or reading Duotrope statistics or poking at the Black Hole before you send to a market. It won't *eliminate* the problem you're having with Heliotrope, but it will ameliorate it. I don't generally send to places once I've seen a couple nightmarish 200 or 400 day responses reported.