Amazon Unveils Shortlist for £20,000 UK Kindle Storyteller Award 2019.

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The shortlist for a prestigious literary award has been unveiled by Amazon as entrants vie for £20,000 in cash as well as a dedicated marketing campaign to promote their book.

The UK Kindle Storyteller Award shortlist features five independently published authors from across the country who will go head-to-head to win the coveted prize.

Readers played a significant role in compiling the shortlisted books, with those chosen based on a range of factors including customer interest in the titles.

New for this year, the winning titles from all six Kindle literary awards around the world will be evaluated by a panel of experts from Amazon International Originals on several criteria such as creativity, originality, and boldness of storytelling.

One finalist will be selected to enter into a development and rights option agreement with Amazon Studios and have their work developed for potential adaptation into an Amazon Prime production.

The full shortlist for the UK Kindle Storyteller Award includes an Agatha Christie-inspired historical mystery as well as a debut novel from Claire Moore which she describes as “Game of Thrones meets Percy Jackson”.

Caimh McDonnell, who is originally from Dublin, is also nominated despite once being told his work was “too funny and too Irish” to be taken seriously, while Hannah Ellis took inspiration from her terminally ill mum who inspired her to put her work out there.

An esteemed panel of judges, made up of both Amazon experts and literary authorities, including journalist and presenter Mariella Frostrup, will select the Kindle Storyteller Award 2019 winner, to be announced at a ceremony in central London on October 14th.

The panel of judges also includes the 2018 winner of the Award, author of The Afterlife of Walter Augustus, Hannah Lynn, best-selling independent authors LJ Ross and Mark Dawson, founder of The Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross, and Simon Johnson, Amazon UK’s Country Manager for Books.

Mariella Frostrup, Judge, Kindle Storyteller Award, said: “It’s brilliant to have had so many independent authors entering the Award this year. What makes this literary prize so special is that readers play a significant role in selecting the winner, and to see such a varied shortlist is a fantastic reflection of the landscape. It isn’t going to be an easy task, but I am incredibly excited to be a part of the judging panel to select the 2019 winner.”

Jose Chapa, Kindle EU, said: “It’s been another great year for the Kindle Storyteller Award, with more entries than we’ve ever received before, and some brilliant work on show from across the UK and beyond. It’s truly an exciting time to be a self-published author, and we’re looking forward to crowning this year’s prize winner in October.”

The UK Kindle Storyteller Award, now in its third year, recognises newly published work in the English language across any genre and was open to all authors who published their book through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.co.uk between 1st May and 31st August 2019.

The 2019 shortlist:

• The Bookshop of Hopes and Dreams by Hannah Ellis• I Have Sinned by Caimh McDonnell• The Army of Wolves by Claire Moore• Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel by Emily Organ• The Picture On The Fridge by Ian W. Sainsbury