Every story that is submitted will be reviewed by a member of our staff; we'll point out the strengths of the work, the moments of grace and promise.

Not every piece submitted to Our Stories is ready to be published, but we don't just send a rejection slip or an email that will say, "thanks, but no thanks." With us, first, you get the shot at publishing and, two, if it doesn't work out, of getting a professional review for your piece. It's something different and we think it makes sense, we hope you like it.

During the free open submission period of Fall, Winter & Spring the feedback will contain:

1. General feedback about your story. How it impacted us. What we saw as the strengths of the piece and how it could be improved.

We may, of course, have no feedback to give a simply ask you to publish it with us

During the summer contest submission period, those stories not accepted for publication will include the following feedback:

1. General feedback and how it impacted us.
2. Page-by-page we will look at the dialogue, plot points and the strength of the writing. Throughout your story we will give comments on the sentences, paragraphs and descriptions in your story. We'll look at the first paragraph, the last paragraph and let you know what worked and what didn't.
3. We will give end notes on the story. A final thoughts section of your story with summary.

Here are some sample reviews we have done :

Sample 1 | Sample 2 | Sample 3

The Our Stories Publishing Schedule
Free Submission Period:	Fall Issue July 1st - September31st
Contest Period:	Winter Issue October 1st - December 31st
Free Submission Period:	Spring Issue January 1st - March 31st
Contest Period:	Summer Issue April 1st - June 31st