Amazon Announces the 4th Literary Award for Spanish-Language Independent Authors

Amazon Announces the 4th Literary Award for Spanish-Language Independent Authors

The contest will award the best original Spanish-language work written by an independent author and published through Kindle Direct Publishing Select

The winning book will have the opportunity to be published globally in Spanish by Amazon Publishing and Audible in digital, print and audio formats, and translated into English and published globally in all formats by AmazonCrossing

Jury members this year include best-selling authors Ismael Cala, Blanca Miosi and Jordi Sierra i Fabra

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2017-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)-Amazon today announced the launch of its 4th Annual Literary Award for Spanish-language books. Independent authors can submit their previously unpublished works through Amazon's self-publishing service, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), making their stories available to millions of readers around the world and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 top author and coach Ismael Cala, ambassador for the contest in the U.S. and Latin America for the past two years, as well as two new ambassadors - Blanca Miosi, best-selling Latin American author, and Jordi Sierra i Fabra, best-selling Spanish author - to join the jury this year.

From July 1 to August 31, authors can upload their work to Amazon's KDP service (http://kdp.amazon.com) for global distribution in both digital and print formats. Authors are given full control over the publishing process, from designing the cover to setting the list price, allowing them to earn up to 70 percent in royalties while retaining their books' copyrights.

To qualify, authors need to make their books exclusively available through Amazon in both print and digital formats. For the Kindle Book it is necessary to enroll the title to KDP Select (benefiting from access to promotional tools and participation in Kindle Unlimited, Amazon's eBook subscription service). They must also set their book price at a minimum of US$2.99, include PremioLiterario2017 in the keywords metadata field, and make the book available for sale globally only in all Amazon marketplaces during the award period. Submitted works must be original, unpublished works written in Spanish. The complete rules and the terms and conditions for the contest can be found at: www.amazon.com/premioliterario.

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 and have the opportunity to be published in print, digital and audio formats by Amazon Publishing and Audible, as well as translated into English and published in digital, print and audio formats by AmazonCrossing, the Amazon Publishing imprint for translated world literature.

By encouraging Spanish-language authors to publish and submit titles to our contest, over the past 3 years we have been able to get more than 2,500 works off of authors' desks and into the hands of readers, said Charles Kronbach, Director, Kindle Direct Publishing. We look forward to this award each year, when we spotlight Spanish-language authors from all over the world. We are excited to announce that this year we have added 3 stars to our cast of jury members.

Winning the Amazon contest has been like finding the key to a closed door for us, said Ana Ballabriga and David Zaplana, authors of Ning n Escoc s Verdadero, the winning book of the 2016 edition. We intuited what was on the other side but now we can see it. And we hope that with the publication of Ning n Escoc s Verdadero with Amazon Publishing we can definitely cross the threshold.

It is an honor to join the jury of the Amazon's Independent Authors Literary Award this year. For two consecutive editions, I have been closely associated with the contest as an ambassador for the U.S. and Latin America, and now as a member of the jury, said Ismael Cala. The competition is a great opportunity to promote literary talent in Spanish. To participate is to win.

The award for the independent Spanish-language author that Amazon organizes is a tremendous contribution to the talent of so many new writers, said Blanca Miosi. I am honored to be a jury member and to join in the effort that this great company brings to literature. I hope many writers enter the prize that will give them a great boost to their careers.

KDP is a free and seamless way for writers and publishers to make their print and digital books available to readers around the world. All the works taking part in the contest will be available in full on paper through Amazon, or as eBook through the Kindle Store and available for free for Kindle Unlimited customers. Customers will be able to purchase the books participating in the contest in print and digital formats. Enjoy the Kindle Books on any device with the free Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, PC and Mac, and on Kindle e-readers and Fire Tablets.

About Amazon

Amazon 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. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

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