Bangalore, 5th July 2022: Amazon India today launched the fifth edition of its annual Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) flagship event, Pen to Publish Contest. With this contest, Amazon invites writers to submit original and previously unpublished entries in English, Hindi and Tamil languages. An eminent judging panel will analyse the submitted entries including Sudeep Nagarkar and Sudha Nair for English entries, Satya Vyas and Vijay Kakwani for Hindi entries and Naga Chokkan for Tamil entries.

Interested budding authors can enrol themselves in the contest by self-publishing their eBook with 5,000 words or more using the KDP service. Participants can submit their entries which will be judged on a number of criteria including originality, creativity, quality of writing, and customer feedback, from 10 July 2022 to 10 September 2022. Unlike previous editions of the contest, this year the top 10 entries in each language will win cash prizes. The winning entry will receive a cash prize of ₹1 lakh, while the first runners up will be awarded ₹50,000 and second runners up will win a cash prize of ₹30,000. The other seven participants from the top 10 will be granted an amount of ₹10,000 each.

Sharing views on the launch, Amol Gurwara, Director Kindle Content – India, Amazon, says, “The fourth edition of the Pen to Publish surpassed our expectations and encouraged us to continue with this annual contest. Taking forward our promise to empower writers from all walks of life through self-publishing and help them become ‘authorpreneurs’, we are happy to announce this fifth edition. We aim to encourage enthusiastic writers to turn their passion for writing into a career by self-publishing their work and look forward to receiving more entries this year as well.”

“KDP has been offering authors an option to publish across languages. The Pen to Publish Contest motivates writers to share their untold stories with readers across the world. I am excited to be a part of the contest and look forward to reading some exciting work by up and coming authors,” says Sudeep Nagarkar, Author and Jury member – English language, KDP Pen to Publish Contest fifth edition.

“When I participated in the contest last year, it was my first experience in self-publishing, and I was amazed to discover how KDP made the process extremely easy and for my book to gain a large readership. Complete access and control of my work on Amazon Kindle along with an attractive royalty rate of up to 70% was a lucrative offer and winning the contest further motivated me to become a full-time author. Ever since, I have published more than six books with KDP.” says Deepti Mittal, winner of the fourth edition of the Pen to Publish contest.

Interested participants can submit their entries in the KDP Select program by self-publishing their book on kdp.amazon.com from 10 July 2022 to 10 September 2022. Entries should include pentopublish5 keyword in the book’s information and all eBooks will be available on free Kindle apps for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, PC, and Mac as well as Kindle E-readers.