Rakuten Kobo, one of the world’s leading eReading services, is now accepting submissions for its third annual Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. The prize identifies, and puts at the forefront of the competitive publishing industry, exceptional books written by first-time authors from three categories: Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction (this year Speculative Fiction with a different genre showcased each year), and Non-Fiction.
Each winning author will be awarded a $10,000 (CAD) cash prize as well as promotional, marketing and communications support, with the winners announced in June of 2017.
“We must always remember that before Munro was Munro, or Atwood was Atwood, they were first-time writers in search of readers. New writers are essential if we wish to continue to have a vital and compelling literary culture,” said Michael Tamblyn, CEO of Rakuten Kobo. “We focus on debut writers because breaking through with a new book can be difficult in the world of online sales, where factors such as sales history and click-through rates directly affect discoverability. As such, with this prize we complement the monetary award with promotional support to help find more readers and new audiences for the winning titles.”
This year, the final winners will be selected by top Canadian authors – Zoe Whittall for Literary Fiction, Kelley Armstrong for Speculative Fiction, and Ross King for Non-Fiction. They’ll choose from a shortlist determined by Kobo’s team of booksellers, also taking into account reading data. Submissions will be accepted at www.kobo.com/emergingwriter until Friday, March 3 for debut books published in 2016 by Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada in any of the three categories. Submissions can be made by publishers or directly by authors. Traditionally published and self-published books are also eligible. All submitted books must be available at Kobo.com.
Third Annual Kobo Emerging Writer Prize now accepting submissions to March 3
