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Write for LAWSONRY

LAWSONRY is looking to bring on two columnists!

Goals:

  • We create a mutually collaborative mental space for creative reflection, both on LAWSONRY and on BlueSky.
  • We each publish on LAWSONRY at least once per week, and at least try to engage in discussions on BlueSky about all works we publish here.
  • We feel our work spark joy both within ourselves and our communities.

Pay & commitment:

  • Columnists are paid $400 USD per month in exchange for a minimum commitment of one new essay/article/long-form commentary per week.

Audience:

  • Our audience of interested and engaged readers is growing, and I want you to be part of this growth! Right now there's about 20,000 unique visitors per month, 1,000 subscribers, and 200 paid subscriptions. A lot of traffic and growth comes from my TikTok account (~167k followers).

Content:

  • We make nonfiction, blog-like artifacts that inspire, intrigue, and instruct.
  • Readers appreciate thoughtful commentary and informed perspectives on our roles as the ever-nascent actors of the American zeitgeist.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • Social information platforms and the realities we construct with them
  • Misinformation & disinformation online
  • Politics & public policy in relation to social information technology (uses, understanding, conflicts, directions...)
  • Ethical product leadership for technologically-mediated reality construction
  • The Means of Connectedness
  • Technologically-mediated third spaces and digital communities
  • Community health and moderation in fragmented digital environments

This next part is very important:

  • Absolutely NO AI slop. Do not use AI-generated images; do not use AI-generated words. We are a HUMAN experience for HUMANS.
  • This is not negotiable.

Each writer has a "column", which is just a tag in our CMS. That means you'll have something like I have with The Weekender here: a dedicated page with the name of your column, a description of the column that you write, along with every post that you write in this column. (You'll also have an author page like this).

Cadence:

  • Pick a day of the week and try to consistently post at least one new work that day.
  • You may post more than once per week (but remember the minimum commitment is at least once per week).
  • I'll share your work as it's posted via email (to subscribers), as well as on BlueSky, Patreon, and of course here on LAWSONRY. Some work will be wrapped up in commentary I post to TikTok as well.

Vibes:

  • 🏳️‍🌈🍳

Housekeeping:

  • We are using the Ghost CMS, so you'll need to be familiar and comfortable with writing in this environment.
  • Payment is via PayPal at the first of every month.
  • Your work stays posted on LAWSONRY; you cannot cross-post your work elsewhere or share it in any other form besides your post's URL at lawsonry.com.

How to Apply:

  • Does the content on LAWSONRY.com resonate with you?
  • Do you have writing samples (blog posts, articles, etc) that illustrate your writing style and the kinds of topics you like to explore?
  • Can you commit to at least one new artifact per week?
  • Have you read this WHOLE page?

If you answered "yes" to all three, please reach out to me via email (jesse@lawsonry.com) and include:

1️⃣ A little about you—who you are, and what kind of topics in this space are interesting to you—including what you would like your column to be named

2️⃣ Links to writing samples

3️⃣ Link to your BlueSky account

4️⃣ When you can start

5️⃣ Any questions you have

As long as this page is available, I'm still looking for Columnists.

Please reach out if this opportunity resonates with you!

Rights & Terms

  • First English language worldwide electronic rights. (You cannot have posted this anywhere else).
  • First print rights, digital and physical. (You cannot have published this anywhere else).
  • Exclusive anthology rights. (We may put our articles into an anthology that will be published in a digital + print edition in the future).

At all times, copyright remains exclusively with you, the author.

Payment is made via PayPal.

Content Samples

Following are some samples of my writing to get a taste for the kinds of things our audience is interested in. These are illustrative and not representative; it's okay if your ideas and thoughts are adjacent to rather than directly apart of these topics:

1️⃣ Long-form commentary that intersects many topics:

Russia’s 21st Century Warfare on our 18th Century Election System
Trump has exposed a critical design flaw in our 18th century election system: since corporate social media has pulled our country into rhetorical echo chambers, surgically targeted disinformation can determine the outcome of an election.
LAWSONRYJesse Lawson

2️⃣ Curiosity-cultivating commentary on published research:

In Colorado, voting by mail increased Millennial turnout by 10.1%
Over a third of registered non-voters between the ages of 18 and 50 cited time constraints as the main reason for not voting.
LAWSONRYJesse Lawson

2️⃣ Specific platform/technology & implications deep-dive:

BlueSky’s Tradeoffs: Privacy, Centralization, and Protocol Design Decisions
A look at the real-world implications of ‘decentralized’ social technology.
LAWSONRYJesse Lawson