How to self-publish your book
Acouple of years ago, if you went to a publisher with a manuscript in hand, all you would get as a hopeful author would be rejection letters from them. While that still holds true today, there has been a massive and a promising change in the publishing industry with Kindle Direct Publishing making it easier for writers and publishers to digitally publish their work.
Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP as we know it, is Amazon’s self-publishing service that helps authors and publishers publish their books independently. A free and extremely simple service, KDP enables authors and publishers to experiment while retaining control over their work. Authors retain their rights, set their own list prices, distribute globally and in multiple languages, and also earn up to 70% of royalties.
If you have a story to tell, and if you would like to publish your own book, now is a great opportunity because KDP has launched the Pen to Publish contest that recognises literary excellence in English language. The contest is open for submissions of new English language books across all genres.
Creativity, originality, commercial viability of story, and quality of writing are some of the criteria on which the winning work will be judged. Five finalists will be short-listed, and one winner will be selected. The winner will be announced at a popular literary festival in early 2018. The winner will receive a prize of `10 lakh, a print publishing deal with Westland Publishing for the winning work, and a 1:1 mentoring by a popular author.
The judges for the contest include international bestselling authors Joan Collins, Chetan Bhagat, and Ashwin Sanghi. The panel also includes best-selling KDP author Sundari Venkataraman and VK Karthika, a publisher with Westland.
Some of the judges for the contest also started off with self-publishing in their early days before becoming best-selling authors. What Ashwin Sanghi says is immensely inspiring: “As an author who started out selfpublished, I believe that this contest is a terrific opportunity for many aspiring authors to be discovered.”
To participate in the contest, visit kdp.amazon. com and self-publish an original and unpublished book. All eBook entries for the contest will be available on the Kindle and the free Kindle app for iPhone, iPad as well as Android phones and tablets. The contest is open till 10th November. For more information about the contest, authors can visit www.amazon.in/ pentopublish.
With a surge in selfpublishing of eBooks, and with KDP, the contest is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for authors. “I believe that the Amazon KDP Pen to Publish Contest is uniquely placed to uncover and connect many aspiring authors to their readers. I can’t wait to read the entries,” says Joan Collins.