Fiction Department Response Status
This page attempts to answer questions about what stories we have and haven't responded to. Please keep an eye on this page now and then while you've got a story under consideration with us. This page is always up-to-date; it's updated automatically as we respond to stories.
This page applies only to the fiction department.
This page is for people who have already submitted a story. To find out how to submit a story, read our guidelines.
Did you receive my story?
If you've submitted to us, you should have received an autoresponse in email. If you haven't received an autoresponse within 24 hours after submitting, please query immediately. Please don't wait longer than 24 hours to query about a missing autoresponse.
If you received an autoresponse, then we definitely received your story.
What stories have you responded to?
As of today (8 November 2009), we have responded to all stories submitted to us before 1 September 2009.
(So the oldest story we're still considering was submitted 68 days ago.)
If you submitted a story to us before that date but haven't received a response, please query immediately.
Note that responses sometimes get caught by spam filters. Whenever you're expecting mail from someone, it's a good idea to search your spam folder to see if the message got caught. Our responses to stories always have the following subject line:
Re: FICTION SUB: Your Story's Title
So before you query, try searching your spam folder for the phrase FICTION SUB to see if our response got marked as spam.
Note that if you require senders to click a link before you'll accept mail from them, you won't receive our response to your story. To avoid this problem, add our email address to your whitelist.
How do I query?
Send queries to fiction@strangehorizons.com, with a Subject line that begins with the word QUERY and includes your story's title.
For example, to query about a submission that you haven't received an autoresponse for, use the following Subject line:
QUERY: missing autoresponse for "My Story's Title"
To query about a submission sent before the above date, use the following Subject line:
QUERY: missing response for "My Story's Title"
In the vast majority of cases, a missing response means that something got lost in email, so please phrase your queries politely and please use phrasing that doesn't suggest that we're being slow or deliberately withholding information from you.
Before contacting us for other reasons, please read our guidelines. They may answer your question.