Mumbai: Wattpad, the global multiplatform entertainment company and the world’s leading social storytelling platform, announced the second annual Wattpad India Awards. The idea is to celebrate the millions of readers and writers that make up the Indian Wattpad community, and the diverse, world-changing stories writers across the country share every day on Wattpad.
Writers can submit their entries between 26th October 2020, and 20th November 2020. Writers can submit their stories and learn more about the submissions criteria on the Wattpad India Awards 2020 profile. The Wattpad India Awards shortlist will be announced on 10th December, followed by the winning list on 24th December 2020.
The second annual Wattpad India Awards jury consists of renowned Indian authors and publishing leaders. This year’s judges include authors Kanchana Banerjee and Neil D’Silva, screenwriter, and Wattpad India Awards 2019 winner AanchalBuddhiraja, Wattpad India Content Lead Dyuti Mishra, Nayantara Srinivasan, Editor at HarperCollins India, and Roshini Dadlani, Editor at Penguin Random House India.
Wattpad India Award winners will receive cash prizes, an official Wattpad India Awards badge to recognize their story on Wattpad, and merit certificates. Winning stories will also be featured to millions of readers on Wattpad India and promoted on the company’s social media handles.
Devashish Sharma, India Country Head, Wattpad said, “Wattpad is home to some of the most creative literary voices on the planet. Like everything we do at Wattpad, the Wattpad India Awards are designed to encourage, elevate, and empower writers to share their voice and become part of the literary community on Wattpad. We are thrilled to kick-off the second annual Wattpad India Awards and can’t wait to dive into the page-turning stories users submit.”
Roshini Dadlani, Editor at Penguin Random House India said, “I’m confident that I’m going to get to read some amazing stories through the Wattpad India Awards. I look forward to seeing how writers push the boundaries of genre to create exceptional worlds and characters.”
Kanchana Banerjee, author at HarperCollins added, “Books are the window to the soul of a community. Through stories; opinions, feelings, expectations are conveyed. Stories don’t just mirror society, they often show the path, are beacons of light and the start of a new journey. It’s always delightful to hear new voices, read new stories and I’m honored to be part of the second edition of Wattpad India Awards.”
The Wattpad India Awards are modeled on the Watty Awards, Wattpad’s annual, global writing competition. Since launching in 2009, writers all over the world have submitted more than 1.2 million stories to the Watty Awards, including nearly 170,000 entries in 2019 alone.
The awards are open to writers 13+ based in India. To be eligible, narrative stories must contain at least 10,000 words and poetry entries should have a minimum of 500 words. Stories can be either in English or Hindi. Categories for the Wattpad India Awards 2020 include romance, poetry, science fiction, fantasy/adventure, mystery/thriller, young and new adult, horror/paranormal, fanfiction, regional language (Tamil and Malayalam).
