Benjamin Sobieck

Anthropic AI copyright case has been settled. I expect this to now mainly pay the lawyers, not the authors.

Hunter S. Thompson is a big reason why I switched to a journalism major in college. He occupied this weird superposition of being the ultimate outsider and the insider with all the secrets. I had the first part down just fine, but I craved that inside look. Journalism it would have to be.
          
          However, "gonzo journalism" is no longer a novelty. This era of the celebrity journalist/personality/influencer lays bare what a farce the entire mythos of HST really was: a cult of personality disguised as journalistic insight. I can't read his books anymore, to say nothing of the movie adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." His fans are more interested in the drug culture than the commentary. And Nixon, HST's perennial target, is just Trump on a good day.
          
          That's not to say he couldn't string a sentence together. He could sink a razor into your belly when he needed to, but it's just wordsmithing. The wrapper of gonzo journalism and legendary drug binges provided is decayed, drifting in the breeze of 2025's most hydrophobic blowhards.
          
          It should be a good thing, then, that I never met him. He killed himself while I was still in J school. In a way, it ensured his admirers would never cease, since they also would never get to meet their hero.

Writing Zandra 10 years ago was fun because grift wasn’t as fashionable. Now we’ve handed the internet over to supplement companies, and the country to a vacancy that swallows everything.

I'm reading "Raw Dog" by Jamie Loftus right now, about the culture around hot dogs in the United States. Loving it. It's half hot dog road trip and half history lesson. 
          
          That this one food type so well represents the id of the USA is something I never really thought about, but Loftus is as astute as they come. Her writing style is loads of fun, too. Good stuff. Check it out.

When you're at a writer-y/bookish event and you're not sure how to break the ice in a conversation, try this little trick. 
          
          Instead of "How are you?" or "What do you think of the event?", ask "What are you working on?" 
          
          Works every time.

Two pieces published over at the satirical standard, The Hard Times:
          
          https://thehardtimes.net/author/ben-sobieck/
          
          Three more on the way. 
          
          I continue to edit long form, but all my new writing is happening at THT. Nothing longer than 400 words.

Watty Award submissions are open!

Big news from Jane Friedman's excellent publishing industry newsletter, "The Bottom Line" (formerly "The Hot Sheet").
          
          
          
          Radish is closing at the end of this year
          
          Founded in 2016, Radish is a serialized fiction platform primarily known for romance. Ten years ago, there was market enthusiasm and interest in mobile reading, with numerous companies entering the market: Tapas, Serial Box, Rooster, and Amazon Singles.
          
          However, the market has cooled considerably. Amazon’s Kindle Vella closed in early 2025, Wattpad WEBTOON’s Yonder closes at the end of this month, and now Radish has announced its closure. Authors in discussion groups didn’t seem surprised, given that earnings through Radish had started to drop. But the alternatives that pay writers are slim. Some have mentioned moving their work to Royal Road.
          
          Radish is owned by Kakao Entertainment, the entertainment arm of the South Korean internet company Kakao. It acquired both Tapas and Radish in May 2021 for $440 million and $510 million respectively. (Note that Kakao competes against another South Korean company, Naver, which owns Wattpad WEBTOON.)
          
          Does the closure of Radish mean Tapas is also in danger? It seems unlikely, because the apps appeal to different audiences. Radish’s audience is primarily adult women and publishes erotica and explicit sexual content; Tapas appeals to a younger demographic and is known more for webcomics. Publishers Weekly reported last year that Tapas changed its strategy in 2022 to focus more on Asian markets.

Spend all day being all these different people and then hope the last one remembers how to get through the night, that’s where the insomnia comes from. Just luck of the draw. And the one that’s last in line lately won’t let this 500-word project switch off for long enough to get the rest I need to solve it in the first place. So I change where I sleep, and next to whom, to will out the version that knows how to finally rest, equally hopeful and frightened at what it will offer.

On the other side of the algorithm is the world you were looking for.