Amazon announces 3rd edition of Kindle Pen to Publish Contest

Amazon announces 3rd edition of Kindle – Pen to Publish Contest

Amazon India has announced the third edition of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Pen to Publish Contest. The contest is open to all genres in English, Hindi and Tamil. Interested participants can submit their original written entries either in short-format (2,000 to 10,000 words) or long-format (more than 10,000 words) through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.in from 15^th September 2019 to 14^th December 2019. Authors can participate by publishing their books using Kindle Direct Publishing.

Highlights-

• This year, there’s much more in store for winners and runners up with cash prizes worth over ₹20 lakh to be won
• The judging panel includes best-selling authors Durjoy Datta, Sudha Nair, Divya Prakash Dubey, Pa. Raghavan and C. Saravanakarthikeyan
• One of the finalists from all six Kindle literary awards around the world will have the chance of seeing their work made into an Amazon Prime Video production

 Entries will be judged on originality, creativity and the quality of writing, and customer feedback. The judging panel will include popular authors like Durjoy Datta and Sudha Nair for English entries, Divya Prakash Dubey for Hindi entries, and Pa. Raghavan and C. Saravanakarthikeyan for Tamil entries.

For each language-format combination, up to five finalists will be short-listed and top three winners will be selected from each segment. Winning entries in each language for the long-format category will win a cash prize of ₹5 lakh, a merchandising deal and a chance to be mentored by the panellists. The first runners-up will receive a cash prize of ₹1 lakh each, while second runners-up will be awarded ₹50,000 each. For the short-format category, winners will be awarded ₹50,000 each while the first and second runners-up will get ₹25,000 and ₹10,000 each respectively.

“The KDP Pen to Publish Contest is a great place for budding authors to realise the potential of self-publishing. I strongly believe that it will empower more writers to turn their passion for writing into a lucrative career”, said Sudha Nair, winner of the inaugural edition of the contest and is a jury member this year.

“The third edition of KDP Pen to Publish Contest in India promises to be bigger and more interesting this year. India is a land of storytellers and we are excited to provide authors with a place to showcase their work across languages. We think today’s announcement gives an extra incentive to those who might be on the fence about participating in the contest”, said Amol Gurwara, Director Kindle Content – India, Amazon.

Additionally, this year, the finalists and winning titles of long-format category from all six Kindle literary awards around the world will be evaluated by a panel from Amazon Prime Video executives to select one book. They will assess it on creativity, originality, boldness of storytelling and relevance of cultural aspects for the local territory. The winner will be offered an exclusive, 36-month option for Amazon Studios to purchase the screenplay along with an advance payment of ~₹7 lakh.

James Farrell, Head of International Originals for Amazon Studios said, “We are thrilled with this partnership between Amazon Studios, Kindle Direct Publishing and authors. We are continuously looking for original content from around the world for our Prime Video customers, and the next big idea and truly unique perspective can come from anywhere. To have a shortlist of great books evaluated by Kindle and by customers through the already successful KDP writing contests, and being able to pick one of them to develop as either a series or a movie will be fantastic”.

Participants must visit kdp.amazon.com to self-publish their book on amazon.in while enrolling their book in KDP Select program. All eBooks entering the contest will be available on the free Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, PC and Mac as well as Kindle E-readers. For more information, authors can visit www.amazon.in/pentopublish.

KDP is a fast, free and easy service for authors to self-publish their books in digital format to a global audience and receive up to 70% royalties on the sale of their eBooks. At present, nearly 10% of the Top 100 books on the India Kindle Store are self-published through KDP.

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