Editorial Services

What makes a short story break through the submission piles of all these literary magazines and get accepted for publication?

I’m Michael Nye *waves* editor of Story. I’m the author of three books of fiction, and my work has appeared in over two dozen literary magazines, such as Kenyon Review, Epoch, Northwest Review, Pleiades, and the Normal School. For twenty years, I have worked on a diverse range of literary magazines: River Styx, Boulevard, and the Missouri Review before relaunching Story in 2018.

In just the last five years, I have published 150 authors, sifting through more than 20,000 submissions to find the wonderful fiction that Story publishes on a triannual basis. Upon acceptance, I then go through an editorial process with each author, editing for house style (Story uses Chicago), syntax, clarity, grammar, imagery, and narrative rhythm.

Fiction I have edited for Story has been republished in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize, and a dozen more have been cited in these anthologies as distinguished or notable stories When it comes to contemporary literary fiction, I know what I’m doing!

Here’s the process. You send an initial query email telling me about the story you are working on and checking on my availability. Then, via email, you and I agree that I’m the right editor for you. You send me the story, and over the next week, I work through your story with the same intensity and focus that I give to my Story authors. I’ll send you back the manuscript with my notes and thoughts, and then we will schedule a phone call so we can walk through it.

Please contact me directly at michaelpatricknye@gmail.com for rates and availability.