Amazon Announces the Third Indie Literary Prize for Spanish-Language Authors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

AMZN—Amazon announced today the third Indie Literary Prize for Spanish-language authors. Independent authors can submit their previously unpublished fiction and non-fiction works through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), making their stories available to millions of readers around the world, and qualifying for the opportunity to have their work published in print and audio, translated into English, and distributed worldwide. Amazon invited Ismael Cala, award-winning journalist, best-selling author and International speaker to be the ambassador of the contest for the United States and Latin America for the second year.

From July 1^st to August 31^st, authors can upload their work to Amazon's KDP platform (http://kdp.amazon.com). Authors are given full control over the publishing process, from designing the cover to setting the list price while allowing them to earn up to 70 percent in royalties and benefitting from access to promotional tools and participation in Kindle Unlimited, Amazon's eBook subscription service, when enrolling into KDP Select. They can also order print versions of their books by using CreateSpace (www.createspace.com) reaching readers in both formats.

Books will be reviewed based on several criteria, such as creativity, originality, commercial viability and quality of writing. Five finalists will be chosen and out of this group, one will be selected as the winner, that will have the opportunity to be published in print, digital and audio formats by Amazon Publishing and Audible, and translated into English and published in digital, print and audio formats by AmazonCrossing, the Amazon Publishing imprint for translated world literature.

"We are very excited to have established a yearly contest that is connecting Spanish-language authors with a growing audience of digital readers across the globe. Myriam Millán, the winner of the 2015 edition, is from Sevilla, Spain, and was able to reach the top of Kindle's best-sellers list for Spain and Mexico, as well as the Spanish-language list for the US," says Charles Kronbach, Director, Kindle Direct Publishing. "We saw works submitted from more than 1,200 authors in 37 countries in 2015. Just like Myriam, countless independent authors grew their reader base through their participation in the contest, as participating titles in the 2015 contest edition were sold in 56 countries. If you write in Spanish, we invite you to participate and share your work with a global audience through KDP."

"Winning the competition has changed my life completely. A year ago I was an unemployed housewife with a manuscript in a drawer I did not know what to do with," says Myriam Millán, winner of the Second Indie Literary Prize for Spanish-Language Authors. "Now I dedicate myself to writing, I have thousands of readers around the world and a great team of professionals is prepping La Hija del Dragón for its publication in English. This competition is the opportunity that every aspiring writer dreams about."

"Being ambassador for this contest for the US and Latin America for the second consecutive year is, for me, an honor and my commitment to the promotion of literary talent in Spanish," says Ismael Cala. "I thank Amazon for continuing this event, which is a great opportunity for writers in the region. I hope that many independent authors join the contest this year and are rewarded for their efforts."

To participate in the contest, independent authors need to upload their work to Amazon's KDP platform (http://kdp.amazon.com), between July 1 and August 31, and include concursoindie2016 in the "search keywords" metadata field. Submitted titles must be original, unpublished works, in Spanish and exclusive to Kindle through enrollment in KDP Select. The complete rules and the terms and conditions for the contest can be found at: www.amazon.com/concursoindie.

KDP is a free and seamless way for writers and publishers to make their eBooks available to Kindle readers around the world. All the works taking part in the contest will be available in full in the Kindle Store and available for free for Kindle Unlimited customers. All Kindle Books can be read on the Kindle and Fire family of devices, and free Kindle reading apps for computers, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

About Amazon

Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

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