KDP Pen to Publish 2018 contest is here to help the writer in you get a shot at global recognition

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”— Richard Bach

For all those writers, budding and established, amateurs and professionals, Kindle Direct Publishing from Amazon is back with the KDP Pen to Publish 2018 contest, an opportunity that could be truly life-changing. Just ask Sudha Nair and J Alchem, winners of the contest’s inaugural edition in 2017, who will surely vouch for the transformational powers of the Pen to Publish contest.

This year, there’s much more in store for self-published authors—cash prizes worth over Rs 15 lakh, a chance to be read by a panel of best-selling authors, fame and a fan following across the globe!

And all of this is literally at your fingertips. So if you have a novel, story or poem that you have been waiting to publish, then this is the time to do it. Participate in the KDP Pen to Publish 2018 Contest now!

How can you participate?

All you need to do is write an original and previously unpublished novel, short story or poems in English, Hindi or Tamil and publish it on the KDP portal between November 10, 2018 and February 9, 2019.

You could then add the relevant keywords to improve the reach of your work. While adding keywords, make sure to add pentopublish2018 in the metadata field. Also, ensure that your book is enrolled in the KDP Select programme while participating in the contest.

You can get more details on the contest here.

Get acknowledged by best-selling authors

This year, the jury for Pen to Publish 2018 contest comprises eminent writers such as Ashwin Sanghi, who ranks among India's highest-selling authors of English fiction, Rashmi Bansal, bestselling author of 'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish'; Divya Prakash Dubey, bestselling Hindi author; Sundari Venkatraman, an indie author with 100 bestsellers on Amazon globally and Era. Murugan, a Tamil author who has also penned dialogues for Tamil movies.

The winner will be selected in two phases. In Phase 1, each work will be rated on its commercial viability, namely how well it sells, how many people borrow it and overall customer feedback. Up to five entries from each language and type of work will move on to Phase 2 and the judges will identify the final winner from among these.

The best entries get to take home over Rs 15 lakh. Three winners will be awarded Rs 5 lakh for long form writing (more than 10,000 words), three winners for short form entries (2,000 to 10,000 words) will be awarded Rs 50,000 and upto 30 finalists will win Kindle E-readers.

Why choose KDP?

How long does it take to publish a book the old-fashioned way? The answer could be anywhere from three weeks to three months or even years. With KDP, however, it takes less than five minutes and your book appears on Kindle stores globally within 1-2 days. You even earn upto 70 percent royalty on the sale of your eBooks.

What’s more? It’s free and easy to publish, and the entire process is extremely transparent. You can set your own price lists, design your own cover and make any other modifications whenever you want to, without having to worry about permissions from the publisher. In other words, you’re your own publisher.

As we mentioned earlier, Sudha Nair, author of The Wedding Tamasha and J Alchem, author of Undelivered Letters who jointly won the contest in 2017, won cash prizes, royalty, and global recognition as authors. This year, it could be you!

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and participate in the Pen to Publish 2018 contest and get your work the recognition it deserves.