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Amazon announces winners of annual KDP Pen to Publish Contest

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A cook-book, a science fantasy fiction, and a guide to healthy mind and body were among the winners of the 2019 edition of the annual Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Pen to Publish Contest, Amazon announced on Friday.

Now in its third year, the contest was conceptualised to celebrate the “exceptional work” among self-published authors, and recognises literary excellence in different genres in long-form and short-form categories across English, Hindi and Tamil languages.

According to Amol Gurwara, Country Manager, Kindle Content India – Amazon, they received over 10,000 entries for the latest edition by authors from various walks of life like bloggers, vloggers, corporate professionals, homemakers and more.

In the long-format writing category, Ramakrishnan B’s “The Story of India through food: OPOS Cookbook” (English), Rajneesh Chaturvedi’s “Antarman: Ek Salesman ki Anokhi Kahani” (Hindi), and Bruno Guru’s “Science and Psychology of Paleo Diet” (Tamil) won the top prizes.

“The KDP Pen to Publish Contest is an incredible opportunity for aspiring writers to realize their potential and receive recognition at a global level and I am quite thankful to the entire Amazon team for it.

“This award is a testament of how anyone who has talent and a story to tell, can take their work to readers across the world. All it took was only a few minutes to publish after writing the novel. KDP has made publishing one’s book so much easier,” Ramakrishnan said.

The winning books in the short-format writing category were all works of fiction across the three languages Vijay Kakwani’s “Who Killed Kaneez?” (English), Mansi Dadhich Mahur’s “Meri Sakhi Sunita: Ek Laghukatha” (Hindi), and G Lenin’s “2K Kid: Thiruvalluvar Year” (Tamil).

The entries were judged on the basis of several criteria including originality, creativity, quality of writing, and customer feedback, by the judging panel. The panel consisted of best-selling authors Durjoy Datta, Sudha Nair, Divya Prakash Dubey, Pa Raghavan and C Saravanakarthikeyan.

“We came across some really high-quality writing while judging, and it was difficult to pick a winner. But I feel every participant is a winner as they are all published authors.

“Self-publishing through KDP is a game-changer enabling writers to take their thoughts and stories to their readers. And this contest has been just the right motivation to drive enthusiasm amongst budding writers across India and the world,” Dutta said.

Winning entries in each language for the long-format category have been awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each, a merchandising deal and a chance to be mentored by the panellists.

The first runners-up received a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each, while second runners-up were awarded Rs 50,000 each.

For the short-format category, winners were awarded Rs 50,000 each while the first and second runners-up got Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000 each respectively.

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