Released on: August 14, 2008, 6:19 am

Press Release Author: Indiaplaza

Industry: Entertainment

Press Release Summary: 'Indiaplaza Golden Quill Book Awards' is an annual award
powered by Indiaplaza.in, to be conferred to an Indian author domiciled in India.
The award is for an original full length novel or work of fiction in English or a
translation into English of an original full length novel or work of fiction of any
Indian language published in India in the previous calendar year. The award also
actively promotes these authors and their books.

Press Release Body: Indian authors, get your acceptance speeches ready.
Indiaplaza.in, the largest
online bookstore in India presents the Golden Quill Book Awards for Indian
authors writing in English, and its inaugural award show is just around the
corner.
And book lovers, time to catch up on your reading. Because these awards
aren't just about a jury of critics - regular readers have as much of a say.
"Most book awards are selected by a jury - and we are doing that - but we
also wanted our readers to have the power of deciding the best book," says K.
Vaitheeswaran, co-founder and chief operating officer of Indiaplaza.in. "That's
why we have instituted two separate awards - the Critics' Choice Awards and
the Readers' Choice Award - for the same shortlist."
Bookworms who want to vote for the Readers' Choice Awards just have to log
onto www.indiaplaza.in and make their choice (and maybe win some nifty gift
certificates in the process). Meanwhile, the jury for the critics' award boasts
of some pretty big names, including writer and former BBC journalist Sir Mark
Tully, journalist and theatre critic Shanta Gokhale, writer and columnist Anita
Nair, and novelist Mahasweta Devi.
"I'm personally curious to see if the jury's choice and the reader's choice are
the same - will the jury's choice reflect the readers'?" says Vaitheeswaran.
The other unusual aspect is that only authors of Indian citizenship who're also
domiciled in India are eligible for these awards. A cash prize of one lakh will be
awarded to the winners.
"The number of people writing in India is going up rapidly - several hundred,
even over a thousand books get published every year, but we don't hear of
most of them," says Vaitheeswaran. "The truth is that writers in India simply
don't get the kind of exposure those living abroad do and we want to focus on
promoting them."
The sheer volume of books being published every year does mean that
Indiaplaza.in will have no trouble making the awards an annual affair.
"In fact, we'd like to increase our number of categories to include
translations, children's books, non-fiction as well as books in Indian languages
in upcoming years," says Vaitheeswaran.
For this year's shortlist, major publishers in the country were asked to submit a
list of what they considered the best books by Indian authors published in the
calendar year of 2007, which was then pruned down by professional reviewers.
Voting on the shortlist remains open online until August 20 and the award show
will be held in the last week of the month in Bangalore. If you haven't read
those books yet, now would be a good time to get cracking!

THE SHORTLIST
A Girl And A River - Usha K R
Above Average - Amitabha Bagchi
The Sugar Baron's Daughter - Loveleen Kacker
If God Was A Banker - Ravi Subramanian
Naked In The Wind - Brinda Charry

Web Site: http://www.indiaplaza.in/Goldenquillaward/

Contact Details: Fabmall House
#673, 10th Main, 7th Cross,
HAL IInd Stage,
Indiranagar
Bangalore - 560 008. India