SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–This year, five indie authors who have self-published their books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) have been named winners of the Romance Writers of America RITA Awards, which recognize excellence in published romance fiction. The winners were announced this week at the Romance Writers of America (RWA)’s annual conference in New York City.
All five writers were first-time RITA winners and two of the winners had multiple nominations, including Mia Vincy, who was nominated for her first novel.
This year, the RITA Award finalists included 23 independently published authors. The winners include:
- Elizabeth Dyer’s novel, Fearless, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2019 RITA Award for Romantic Suspense. Two of her novels were nominated in this category this year.
- M. Malone’s novel, Bad Blood, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2019 RITA Award for Romance Novella.
- Susannah Nix’s novel, Advanced Physical Chemistry, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2019 RITA Award for Contemporary Romance: Mid-Length.
- Kennedy Ryan’s novel, Long Shot, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2019 RITA Award for Contemporary Romance: Long.
- Mia Vincy’s novel, A Wicked Kind of Husband, was awarded the Romance Writers of America 2019 RITA Award for Historical Romance: Long. This novel was also nominated for Best First Book.
“A big congratulations to Elizabeth Dyer, M. Malone, Susannah Nix, Kennedy Ryan and Mia Vincy,” said Charles Kronbach, Director of Independent Publishing Worldwide for Amazon. “We’re honored that these talented writers are choosing KDP to self-publish their novels and share their incredible stories with readers around the world.”
About Kindle Direct Publishing (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. Hundreds of thousands of authors have self-published on KDP. In fact, in 2018 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.
