Hugh Howey and Booktrack Announce Global Literary Competition Winners

NEW YORK, NY(Marketwired - Sep 8, 2014) - Bestselling science fiction author Hugh Howey, and eBook soundtrack company Booktrack (www.booktrack.com), today announced the winners of The Hugh Howey Booktrack Competition, one of the world's largest literary competitions, with a total prize pool of $20,000. The global competition offered self-published writers and sound enthusiasts the unique opportunity to submit their work for prizes and a chance to collaborate with Howey. The winner of the fan-fiction writing category is Elodie West for her submission "World Eater," based on Howey's recent bestseller Half Way Home. Jamie Terry is the winner of the soundtrack category for her soundtrack submission accompanying a chapter from Half Way Home.

When asked about the winning submissions, Howey responded: "When done right, nothing sets the mood for an engaging read like a great Booktrack. I love what the winners and all of the finalists pulled off. There is no greater honor than seeing others play in your sandbox and watching them build something more beautiful than you yourself imagined."

The winning entries from West and Terry were selected by Howey from among more than 200 submissions. In total, competition entries were read more than 50,000 times during the two-month contest period.

West's fan-fiction piece can be found on the Booktrack site here: http://www.booktrack.com/hughhowey-fanfictioncontest

Terry's Half Way Home soundtrack can also be accessed via the website here: http://www.booktrack.com/hughhowey-soundtrackcontest

West and Terry will each be receiving $5,000 for their winning submissions. In addition, Howey will be offering Terry the opportunity to co-produce a Booktrack for his latest novel The Hurricane, and West will receive editorial feedback from Howey on up to 10,000 words of original writing.

Other finalists in the fan-fiction category included: Elayne Griffith for "Glory, The Gospel of Oliver"; Emily MacGowan for "Half Way Home: LOADED"; Peter John Ravlich for "Coming of Age"; and Roz Marshall for "The Final Solution." Finalists in the soundtrack category included: Clayton Smith; Jim Knowes; Randolf Smeets; and Sue Copsey for their Half Way Home accompanying soundtrack submissions. All finalists will each receive a prize of $1,000.

"Partnering with Hugh Howey on this competition has been such a great way to showcase how Booktrack can amplify and enhance the reading experience," said Booktrack CEO Paul Cameron. "Hugh is an amazing author and publishing pioneer, and his fans have shown how Booktrack can engage with an author's fan base in a new and exciting way with their fan-fiction and soundtrack submissions in this competition."

Booktrack partnered with Wattpad, the world's largest community of readers and writers, and Writer's Digest, the oldest and most respected media company dedicated to the advancement of writers, on the writing category of the competition, which allowed fans to write and soundtrack original fan-fiction stories based on Howey's Half Way Home. Booktrack also partnered with Indaba Music, the leading online community of musicians and marketplace for music opportunities, on the soundtrack category, which provided fans the chance to create a soundtrack for a chapter of Half Way Home. Half Way Home is a speculative fiction novel set in a futuristic world, where humans are sent to colonize other planets.

As a treat for fans, the first part to Howey's most recent novel Sand is now available to read for free with a soundtrack produced by Park Road Post Productions (Lord of the Rings post production studio) on www.booktrack.com and the Booktrack mobile reader available on iPads, iPhones and Android devices.

About Hugh Howey

Hugh Howey is an American author, known for his work independently published through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing system. His series Wool, published digitally on Amazon, became a sudden success in the fall of 2011. Originally a novelette, demand grew, leading Howey to create the Omnibus series, which reached the #1 Bestseller in Science Fiction on Amazon, and was optioned by Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian for a potential feature film. Howey's work has been mentioned in Entertainment Weekly, Variety, Deadline Hollywood, and a number of other notable publications.

About Booktrack

Booktrack synchronizes movie-style soundtracks to eBooks. Music, ambient audio, and sound effects are automatically paced to an individual's reading speed and synchronized to match the story while they read. Readers get instant free access to thousands of stories, while authors and publishers easily create their own Booktrack titles by matching their stories to an extensive library of over 20,000 free-to-use music and ambient audio tracks.

Backed by investors including Peter Thiel and Weta Digital, Booktrack recently completed $3 million in Series A financing led by Sparkbox Ventures.

The Booktrack application is available from www.booktrack.com and in the Apple App Store, Google Play and Google Chrome Stores.