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How Amazon KDP is fulfilling dreams of writers with ‘Pen to Publish’

Writers Sudeep Nagarkar, Satya Vyas, N. Chokkan and Vijay Kakwani discusses the motive of the contest and the judging criteria, along with the self-publishing industry and its evolution

Sukanya Basu Published 08.09.22, 05:25 AM

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.

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Sudeep Nagarkar

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

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.

“We have been consistently working towards providing an opportunity to the budding writer community through the last four successful editions of Amazon KDP Pen to Publish contest. The previous edition of the contest surpassed our expectations and encouraged us to continue with the same this year as well. With this contest, we at Amazon KDP aim to recognise literary excellence among self-published authors in English, Hindi, and Tamil languages.”

Vaishali Agarwal, head, Amazon KDP
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