Amazon’s self-publishing service Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) announced the results of the fifth edition of its flagship contest: Pen to Publish.
Following are the three winners from the contest:
| Language | Book Title | Author | Genre | City |
| English | The 1st Assassin: A Unit 22 Thriller | Mainak Dhar | Society, Politics & Philosophy | Mumbai |
| Hindi | Lucky Lottery Draw (Hindi Edition) | Pradumn Rakesh Chourey | Literature and Fiction | Mumbai |
| Tamil | பத்தாவது திசை : Pathavathu Disai (Tamil Edition) | Dilip Narayanan | Mystery and Thrillers | Chennai |
KDP Pen to Publish contest recognises literary excellence among self-published authors across genres. Through this contest, KDP recognised 11 self-published eBooks in each of the three participating languages of English, Hindi, and Tamil. The top 3 winners received a cash prize of ₹1 lakh each, and the first runners-up were awarded ₹50,000 each. The second runners-up won a cash prize of ₹30,000 each, while the remaining 8 participants from the top 11 were granted an amount of ₹10,000 each.
The jury panel comprised of best-selling authors Sudeep Nagarkar and Sudha Nair for English entries, Satya Vyas and Vijay Kakwani for Hindi entries, and Naga Chokkan and Cable Sankar for Tamil entries. This year, the contest witnessed participation spanning genres such as literature & fiction, romance, science fiction & fantasy, and mystery & thrillers. The entries were judged on the basis of several criteria including originality, creativity, and quality of writing by the judging panel.
Vaishali Aggarwal, Category Leader, Kindle Content India, Amazon, says, “For the last 10 years, Amazon KDP has been consistently working towards helping the writers community by encouraging and providing them with a service that enables them to self-publish their eBooks and become recognised authors. The fifth edition of KDP Pen to Publish contest received entries from budding and established authors from different walks of life such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and homemakers.”
Sudeep Nagarkar, best-selling author and a jury member for the English language, says, “Passion and dedication could be felt in every eBook that was submitted for Amazon KDP’s Pen to Publish contest. I enjoyed reading the English language entries given the variety of stories and their quality. However, the engaging stories also made judging quite difficult. It was an honour to be a part of the jury panel as I believe that this contest encouraged many aspiring writers to complete their stories and share it with the world.”
