SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Five indie authors have been named winners of Romance Writers of America 2018 RITA Awards, which recognize excellence in published romance fiction. All five authors published their books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The winners were announced this week at Romance Writers of America (RWA)’s annual conference.
“A big congratulations to KDP authors Kara Isaac, J. Kenner, Kait Nolan, Stephanie Rowe and Lexi Ryan,” said Charles Kronbach, Director of Independent Publishing Worldwide for Amazon. “This is an incredible achievement and we’re honored that these talented writers are choosing KDP to reach readers around the world with their remarkable work.”
This year, the RITA Awards went to more KDP authors than ever before. This year the winners were:
- Kara Isaac’s novel, Then There Was You, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2018 RITA Award for Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements. Isaac is a first-time RITA winner.
- J. Kenner’s novel, Wicked Dirty, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2018 RITA Award for Erotic Romance.
- Kait Nolan’s novel, Second Chance Summer, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2018 RITA Award for Contemporary Romance: Short. Nolan is a first-time RITA winner.
- Stephanie Rowe’s novel, Hunt the Darkness, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2018 RITA Award for Paranormal Romance. Rowe is a first-time RITA winner.
- Lexi Ryan’s novel, Falling Hard, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2018 RITA Award for Contemporary Romance: Long. Ryan is a first-time RITA winner.
The 2018 RITA Award finalists included 26 independently published authors, setting a new high for the number of indie authors recognized.
What is KDP?
In 2007, Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to empower authors to reach readers worldwide while retaining their copyright and making up to 70% royalty on their work. KDP offers a free, easy, and fast way to self-publish eBooks and paperbacks. With KDP, the power of publishing is accessible to authors worldwide, allowing a more robust and diverse set of voices to share stories with a wider audience than ever before. Self-publishing lets authors keep control, make more money and reach more readers. Hundreds of thousands of authors have self-published on KDP. In fact, in 2017 thousands of independent authors earned more than $50k, with more than a thousand surpassing $100k in royalties.
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.
