Fourth edition of KDP 'Pen to Publish Contest' announced by Amazon

New Delhi: In a good news for budding writers, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is back with its fourth edition of 'KDP Pen to Publish Contest', Amazon announced on Wednesday.

With cash prizes worth over Rs 20 lakh up for grabs, it is inviting interested participants to publish their original and previously unpublished titles either in short format -- 2,000 to 10,000 words -- or long format -- more than 10,000 words -- on KDP between December 10, 2020 and March 10, 2021.

Conceptualised to recognise literary excellence amongst self-published authors across genres in the English, Hindi and Tamil languages, the entries, as per the organisers, will be judged on a number of criteria including "originality, creativity, quality of writing, and customer feedback".

"The fourth edition of the contest will continue to celebrate the art of writing while bringing writers closer to readers. We think that the short format requiring only 2,000 words will motivate more authors who are sitting on the fence to take the plunge into self-publishing. We are eagerly looking forward to discovering new authors with this contest," said Amol Gurwara, Director Kindle Content - India.

For each language-format combination, up to five finalists will be short-listed, with three winners being selected from each segment. Also, winning entries in each language for the long-format category will win a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and a print-on-demand contract along with editorial support from Westland Publications.

"The first runners-up will receive a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each, while second runners-up will be awarded a prize of Rs 50,000 each. For the short format category, winners will be awarded Rs 50,000 each while the first and second runners-up will win Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000 each respectively. All the winners will receive marketing support for the promotion of their winning eBooks on Amazon.in and a group mentorship session," it added.

The judging panel for this edition of the contest includes popular authors like Durjoy Datta and Anand Neelakantan for English titles, Divya Prakash Dubey and Anu Singh Choudhary for Hindi titles, and Charu Nivedita and C. Saravanakarthikeyan for Tamil titles.

KDP Pen to Publish Contest helps motivate authors to use self-publishing as a means to follow their passion and get discovered in the process. It nudges writers to complete their untold stories and share them with readers across the world through eBooks. I am looking forward to reading some exciting works through this contest. says Anand Neelakantan, author and member of the Jury for the edition.