Bengaluru: Amazon today announced the winners of the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Pen to Publish Contest. In its fourth year now, the contest celebrates exceptional work among self-published authors. It recognizes literary excellence among authors across genres in long-format and short-format categories across English, Hindi, and Tamil languages. This year, the contest received thousands of entries spanning genres like literature & fiction, science fiction & fantasy, mystery &thrillers.
The entries were judged on the basis of several criteria including originality, creativity, and quality of writing by the judging panel. The panel comprised of best-selling authors Durjoy Datta, Anand Neelakantan, Divya Prakash Dubey, Anu Singh Chaudhary, Charu Nivedita, and C. Saravanakarthikeyan across English, Hindi, and Tamil languages.
The long-format winners from each language category won cash prizes of INR 5,00,000. The first runners-up received a cash prize of INR 1,00,000 each, while the second runners-up were awarded a prize of INR 50,000 each. For the short format category, winners won INR 50,000 each while the first and second runners-up were awarded INR 25,000 and INR 10,000 each respectively. All the winners will receive marketing support for the promotion of their winning eBooks on Amazon.in. Additionally, the winners will be mentored by an esteemed panel of authors.
Amol Gurwara, Director Kindle Content India, Amazon says, “We are happy to see thousands of entries in the fourth edition of this contest with authors from different walks of life such as corporate professionals, doctors, and homemakers; it underlines the growing popularity of the contest over the years. We continue to celebrate the culture of writing while bringing talented upcoming writers closer to their audience. At KDP, we want to enable writers across the country to publish their works with utmost ease and simplicity.”
Durjoy Datta, best-selling author and a jury member for the contest, said, “What made me relish my role as a jury member was the variety of stories and their quality. Everyone who participates in this contest is a winner because they become published authors at the end of it. Self-publishing through KDP is a game-changer bridging the gap between authors and their readers seamlessly, and this contest has successfully motivated budding writers to complete their stories.”
Apeksha Rao (Pen Name: Alisha Kay), the long-format winner from the English category, said, “Kindle Direct Publishing has played an integral part in realising my dream of becoming a published author. I have had the opportunity to reach out to an expansive audience as well as generate consistent royalties from my existing books on KDP. I would encourage other aspiring writers to look at KDP for self-publishing their work and reach readers across the world.”
