With a focus on enabling the power of publishing to be accessible to writers worldwide, Amazon has recently made an announcement regarding the deadline extension till October 10 of its flagship event ‘Pen to Publish’ contest’s fifth edition in a virtual media round table. The round table was held in the presence of Vaishali Aggarwal, head, Amazon KDP, along with the jury members of the contest — Sudeep Nagarkar, Indian novelist and writer of fiction; Satya Vyas, Indian writer of modern Hindi; N. Chokkan, Tamil author, and Vijay Kakwani, author and winner of Pen to Publish’s third and fourth edition. They discussed the motive of the Pen to Publish contest and the judging criteria for the fifth edition, along with the self-publishing industry and its evolution.
The round table witnessed an in-depth conversation around how self-publishing services like Amazon KDP are empowering writers from all walks of life and helping them become ‘authorpreneurs’. The jury members present at the round table also shared their experiences with Amazon KDP and their expectations from Pen to Publish fifth edition.
Sudeep Nagarkar
Responding to a question about what is the bigger incentive for the writers, a cash prize or the recognition that Pen to Publish provides, Sudeep Nagarkar said, “It’s not about the cash prize because the biggest dream of budding writers across the country is to publish their work with utmost ease and simplicity and gain recognition in the eyes of the readers. And with Amazon KDP’s Pen to Publish contest, writers are gaining the opportunity to reach out to an expansive audience along with getting recognition for their work.”
N. Chokkan
The session also focused on the take of new breed of writers on self-publishing industry. “Earlier, one would consider themselves a celebrated and successful writer only after publishing a print book. However, today self-publishing offers the writers the same experience, albeit with a few distinct benefits. For many authors and publishers, traditional publishing is the right choice, while self-publishing appears to be the appropriate choice for the different sets of growing numbers of people,” said N. Chokkan.
Amazon KDP Pen to Publish fifth edition was launched in June and is open to receive entries from budding authors till October 10. Interested participants can submit their entries on kdp.amazon.com.
