Guess Who Won a 2016 Watty Award?

Last Friday, it was announced that one of my novels, Black Eye, a sequel of all things, won a Watty award over at Wattpad. The Wattys are the world’s largest online writing contest, and this year brought in 140,000 entries from a site that draws 45 million readers. From that, a handful win Wattys as determined by Wattpad itself.

It’s an incredible honor that brings a lot of opportunity with it. Past winners went on to fantastic success. Whatever comes out of this is going to be big. Bigly big. But even larger than that is my sense of gratitude to Wattpad, my readers and everyone who, through support or sacrifice, kept me going to get to this point. Writing is isolating, but it’s not an island.

I share this honor with Stephanie Lombardi, who designed the excellent cover not two months ago (if you ask nicely, she might design you a cover, too). Prior to that it was a placeholder of white text on a black background. It’s safe to say a proper cover went a long way here, except now there’s a cool sticker on it.

For media, the press release is below. If you’re a publisher or agent interested in working with me on the next steps for this series (it’s a trilogy), get in touch here.

~Ben

Minnesota Writer Wins the World’s Largest Online Fiction Writing Competition

11/7/2016 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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ELK RIVER, MINN. – Benjamin Sobieck, 31, is a winner of The Wattys, the world’s largest online writing competition, hosted by Wattpad. Sobieck’s story, Black Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #2, beat out 140,000 entries to win the 2016 HQ Love award, an honor bestowed by Wattpad for excellence in fiction. Wattpad is a social reading website and app that boasts 45 million readers, and The Wattys are a way of recognizing the best stories each year.

Black Eye is the second in a series of novels featuring a con artist posing as a psychic in order to cheat and blackmail the corrupt residents of a Wisconsin town. It’s been read 86,000 times on Wattpad. Its prequel, Glass Eye, has been read 225,000 times. Overall, people spent 13 billion minutes engaged with Wattys content this year, including Sobieck’s novel, Black Eye.

Sobieck will receive premium exposure to Wattpad’s community of 45 million people, and his work will be recognized as one of the most-loved Wattpad stories out of the millions posted every year. It will also be featured alongside a handful of other 2016 Watty award winners.

Past Wattys winners have worked with top brands like Mondelez, Paramount Pictures and Kraft through Wattpad’s Brand Stories native ad program. Some have even seen their work produced for film, print, television and digital platforms through Wattpad Studios.

Sobieck’s winning story is available on Wattpad at tinyurl.com/black-eye-watty. For more information on the Wattpad app and community, visit: www.wattpad.com/press

About Benjamin Sobieck

Benjamin Sobieck is a resident of Elk River, Minn. He is the author of The Writer’s Guide to Weapons (Writer’s Digest Books) and several thrillers. A graduate of St. Cloud State University, his background includes writing as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor. His website is crimefictionbook.com.

About Wattpad

Since 2006, Wattpad has offered a completely social experience where people everywhere can participate and collaborate on content through comments, messages, and multimedia. Wattpad Studios co-produces stories for film, television, digital, and print, to radically transform the way the entertainment industry sources and produces content. Wattpad Brand Solutions offers new and integrated ways for brands to build deep engagement with consumers. The company is proudly based in Toronto, Canada. Learn more at wattpad.com/about.