Amazon Announces Winner of Fourth Annual Literary Award for Independent Spanish-Language Authors

(NASDAQ:AMZN) - Amazon today announced that Argentine author Cristian Perfumo has won its Fourth Annual Literary Award for independent Spanish-language authors with his thriller El Coleccionista de flechas. The winning entry was selected from more than 1,800 submissions from 39 countries that were self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) between July 1 and August 31.

Perfumo was one of five finalists whose books were reviewed by a panel of celebrity judges that included best-selling author and coach Ismael Cala, popular Latin American author Blanca Miosi, and Jordi Sierra i Fabra, a best-selling author from Spain.

To be eligible, stories had to be original works written in Spanish, published only through KDP in both digital and print formats, and available exclusively to Kindle through enrollment in KDP Select. The countries with the highest number of participating authors were (in order) Spain, Mexico, Argentina, the United States, and Colombia.

"When I hung up the phone, I hugged my wife and found myself overcome with happiness," Perfumo said after learning his book had been selected to receive the award. "It was then that I realized the true meaning of winning Amazon's Literary Award: a lot of new readers were about to transport themselves to my homeland, Patagonia (Argentina), through my stories. A beautiful dream come true."

One of the judges, Sierra i Fabra, described El Coleccionista de flechas as "a classic police thriller that presents Patagonia and its people with precision, kindling readers' interest. The plot is well-threaded, excellently crafted, with solid characters. It also has a coherent and precise ending as well."

As the winning entry, El Coleccionista de flechas will get the chance to be published globally in Spanish by Amazon Publishing in digital, print and audio formats, and translated into English and published globally by AmazonCrossing. Perfumo also will receive a cash prize of $5,000 USD.

Charles Kronbach, Director, Kindle Direct Publishing, explained that self-publishing with KDP gives authors more choices than ever about how to bring their writing to readers.

"This award recognizes the fact that there are many incredibly talented writers out there who have stories to tell and readers eager to access their work," Kronbach said. "We're proud to help bring these authors and readers together."

All books entered in the contest are available at the Kindle Store and can be read 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. Kindle Unlimited subscribers also can read many of the books with no additional cost. The full catalog of 2017 Literary Award submissions, as well as this year's finalists, are available online at www.amazon.com/premioliterario. Previous winners of the award include Ningun escoces verdadero (2016) by Ana Ballabriga and David Zaplana, La hija del dragon (2015) by Myriam Millan, and La mirada de piedra (2014) by Jorge Magano.

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SOURCE: BUSINESS WIRE. ©2017 Business Wire

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