[jaytomio]

First I want to say that I asked for and was granted permission to both post this, and post this in this forum and I want to thank Mr. Rios and CGS for the allowance. You may have seen this at another board so please forgive what must seem like beating a dead horse if that is indeed the case.

I'm interested in artists who have samples of their work to send them to me in efforts to find somebody to do a cover for our Ezine. The publication is called Heliotrope and is quarterly speculative fiction related project that includes short fiction, articles, columns and poetry. This next issue is a change in format for us as we intend to publish fiction in print in 2009 and thus I've morphed Heliotrope into a non-fiction venue. Now, what makes us different from POS Ezines on the web? Well I'm biased, but the people who write are content are almost all published novelists (the kind you can go to the bookstore and see on the shelf) and all of them have had critical success in their fields (you will find multiple Tiptree, Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Sidewise, Stoker and Rhysling - the poetry award - award winners). This next issue will have at least a couple of names that are familiar to comic fans:

K.J. Bishop (Crawford, Aurealis and Ditmar award Winner -author of The Etched City)

Hal Duncan (World Fantasy and Locus finalist award finalist -author of Vellum and Ink)

Neil Gaiman (I'm assuming you all know who he is)

Rhys Hughes (author of numerous short collections and novels including the Borges homage A New Universal History of Infamy)

Paul S. Kemp (best selling author in Forgotten Realms and creator of Erevis Cale)

Chris Roberson (Sidewise Award winner, World Fantasy Award finalist)

Bryan Talbot (I'm assuming you all know who he is)

Catherynne M. Valente (Tiptree award winner for Best Novel and World Fantasy award finalist)

Jeff VanderMeer (Word Fantasy winner - Hugo, PKD, Bram Stoker finalist)

Last and certainly least, this will probably include a piece by myself (and hopefully my co-editor) to fill in a regular column in our issue.

In the past we have published pieces by such talented writers like the legendary Michael Moorcock, Jeffrey Ford, Brenden Connell, Anna Tambour, Theodora Goss, Ian R. Macleod and R. Scott Bakker (again all published novelists at the least).

If any are interested please email samples to heliotropeditor at gmail.com (avoiding spambots). This issue will go live in late fall.

I'm going to be straight up with you, we can't (or rather won't) pay for a Sam Keith, James Jean, or a Michael Golden cover here, so I'm not looking for the gentlemen or lady who thinks we are Marvel or DC - as this is a FREE publication - and wants to charge me more than the rest of the publication is costing me for a cover alone. This is more for the gentleman or lady who may be an 'up and comer' who wants to make couple of bills (possibly off work they already have done) and who we may ask again for pieces on our sister site redesign, who would also be interested in being looked at by the fanbases of those mentioned above. While I'm not at all taking credit, one artist who did our second cover is now doing covers for Wizards of the Coast. We are also going to use our Ezine samples as possible gauges for who to use when we make the move into publishing fiction (in print) - where we will be paying industry (book industry) competitive for covers.

Do not hesitate to email me and ask questions. I wanted to add this: The nature of such a publication is that 99% are going to get rejected, so please come with a professional attitude. For example, in a past single issue I may have got around 2,000 short story submissions and picked 3 - everybody else essentially got told we weren't interested.

Thank you for the time and consideration and once again thank you to CGS for letting me present our needs in their house.

This post has been edited by Jay Tomio: 17 June 2008 - 02:27 PM

[atomic99]

What kind of work are you looking for?
A certain style?
A painted piece?

You've certainly got some talented people here but it might be a matter having that right style to match the publication.
Or are you open to viewing different styles?

(I'm not so much thinking of me for the job but just thinking of some people here on the forum that we could point you towards that might be a good match).

[jaytomio]

Good Questions!

The nature of our project is for a singular theme, one that I have yet to make public which is why I'm looking for samples and going from there (there is a chance - as noted we could use an existing piece that has nothing - at least on the surface level- to do with the subject). I will get more specific with artists we have initial interest in.

Though the theme is specific the subject itself is rather far reaching so just about anything could be made to apply (this sounds entirely vague I know) that almost anything could strike a chord with me and be perfect.

I'm completely open to different style and medium, in this case I have no preference.

This is very much an initial query that will probably at least have one more step to get to exactly what we want.

I represent 50% of the decision (though my partner would probably say 51%) and if asking me what artists I find striking I'd say I very much like John Picacio and Les Edwards (aka Edward Miller). That said, those are established painters and I'm open to any medium and I'm well aware that to get that kind of artist I need to be coming off much more.

Like I said, it's vague but intentionally so - both for the nature of the project and to be open to more participation. My best advice is that if it sounds enticing send me samples and let me take it from there.

Equally vague words to think of (be it in the abstract or literally): Mundane yet Whimsical, love letters, and if you have a magic realist bent you might be ahead of the competition though I don't want to come off as nostalgic - this could be cutting-edge modern, even futuristic as well. A Mish Mash but one that seems appropriately so.


I'm sorry, I feel I'm being terribly unhelpful! Maybe I should have said no questions! Also, thank you for the compliment, we are very proud of the talent we have always been able to to access, and we are hoping to make one more announcement regarding our contributors in coming weeks - but right now I just have my fingers crossed

This post has been edited by Jay Tomio: 14 June 2008 - 12:26 PM

[CaptainCanuk]

I have a friend who might be interested, but doesn't have a computer and asked me to offer up a sample of his art. I was just wondering what the e-mail was to send samples to.

[jaytomio]

I have a friend who might be interested, but doesn't have a computer and asked me to offer up a sample of his art. I was just wondering what the e-mail was to send samples to.

As noted in my first post heliotropeditor at gmail.com.

I will add that it will be highly disadvantageous if the person is not easily accessible via the net and available.

[Mothman]

As noted in my first post heliotropeditor at gmail.com.

I will add that it will be highly disadvantageous if the person is not easily accessible via the net and available.

Do you mean available for communication or immediately available to do the cover?

Jim

[jaytomio]

Well, if they can't be communicated with they can't do the cover. I expect to have this wrapped in in 10-14 days (in terms of a decision - not a finished product). If not, I'll just target a few people and go direct. I just felt it would be cool to hit up some comic communities I frequent (for obvious reasons I guess).

When the decision is made I can move on our next issue which will more than likely will be either comic or mystery/crime focused.

[jaytomio]

I'm happy to announce our last contributor to the issue - some guy named Alan Moore

[Toby]

I'm happy to announce our last contributor to the issue - some guy named Alan Moore

Wow, your talent on this book is very impressive and that is an understatement.

Will all forthcoming issues be published online as well as hardcopy?

thanks

Toby

This post has been edited by painters_eye: 17 June 2008 - 04:01 PM

[jaytomio]

The Ezine is now strictly our online non-fiction venue (though we will at least one and maybe 2 pieces of fiction in this issue which is something of a bonus this time-around). There were plans to spin them into annual chapbooks after every year, but we decided to keep Heliotrope online and go a different route with published (print) fiction starting in 2009. For obvious reasons, I can't really speak on that yet (but can't wait until I can!).

We legally own the rights to publish print material out of it still, but we aren't keeping the writers chained since our plans have changed.

This post has been edited by Jay Tomio: 17 June 2008 - 04:09 PM

[jaytomio]

A couple of notes/observations:

1. I am replying to everybody to inform I got their samples (to confirm they were received). I am caught up now, so if you haven't heard from me with this verification please PM me or email me again.

2. Please don't send me to myspace to view stuff. I don't have an account there for many reasons - a few hundred million of them I guess and i have a natural inclination to still think of myspace as bobo.

3. Thanks you very much to all who have submitted thus far.

[jaytomio]

I just wanted to thank everybody who submitted work for our review and let people know we found an artist for the issue. To those who did submit I hope that they will be interested in our issue afterwards which will most likely be comic based or run off of a comic book theme and I will begin collecting writing talent (though I already have some commitments!) for that issue the week or so after our next issue goes live.

Thanks you to all for the consideration including CGS for allowing me to extend my query/search to this community.

[jaytomio]

I just wanted to thank everybody who submitted work for our review and let people know we found an artist for the issue. To those who did submit I hope that they will be interested in our issue afterwards which will most likely be comic based or run off of a comic book theme and I will begin collecting writing talent (though I already have some commitments!) for that issue the week or so after our next issue goes live.

Thanks to all for the consideration, including CGS for allowing me to extend my query/search to this community.