I'm yet to decide on a topic, but having spent a little time on RedSails, it's quite clear that the levels of writing that get posted there vary a lot. I'm not really engrained into any leftist circles outside of an IRL party I'm being vetted for. Has anyone else here contributed essays to any place?
Once I get something written, what is a good way to shop it around to get posted somewhere cool? Anyone have any general experience like this?
Edit: been talking with a comrade and I think I have my topic! The rise of "christian nationalism" as a consequence of alienation/anticommunist ideology, and the parallels between the current movement and its targeting of trans people/leftists and the witch hunts of the 16/1700s in America.
Edit 2: Hot damn I just cranked out a thousand words and feel good about this so far! If anyone wants to take a peek, DM me!
My experience has been that it’s almost impossible to get an essay published anywhere, and that if you self-publish, no one will read it—UNLESS you attack some kind of very sacred cow. I did this recently (can’t go into details for fear of doxxing) and got hundreds of views—pathetic I know—rather than the few dozen at most that I usually get. The thing is, if you actually succeed in getting attention, you find rather quickly that you are placing yourself in physical danger.
I’ve actually had more luck getting novels published than essays so it doesn’t really get me down. The vast majority of leftist sites are CIA ops that no one seems to read. I got close to having something accepted by Roar Magazine, but after I followed their editorial suggestions (as I recall) they ultimately turned me down. I had never seen anyone mention them but still thought it would be cool to be published there. Later they ended up shutting down, obviously because they didn’t accept my brilliant essay (I can’t even remember what it was about so maybe it did actually suck).
Red Sails, though, is one of the good ones.
What makes the sites a CIA op? How would a leftist essay hosting site avoid being co-opted?
I think the op part happens moreso on the social media side of things. Which sites get regularly posted and promoted on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Anybody can set up a Wordpress blog on a $5/mo VPS. Publishing isn't the problem. It has never been more abundant or affordable. The problem is what survives and makes it out the other side of the "attention economy." What people actually end up reading.
I just assume that if they have lib takes (i.e. focusing only on China bad / republicans bad) they might as well be CIA.
I plan on self-publishing an essay on a third rail topic. I'm doing it mainly to get obsessive ideas off of my chest for therapeutic reasons, so I happen not to care much if other people read it. If anyone gains something from it that's a bonus. I'll be using this pseudonym so hopefully that will protect me from most deranged chuds.