Zelda Rhiando wins the Kidwell-e Ebook Award

The winner of the inaugural Kidwell-e Ebook Award — which at £10,000 pounds represents the biggest literary prize of its kind in the world — has been announced as first-time author Zelda Rhiando.

Mum-of-two Rhiando, from Brixton, south London, beat “stiff competition” from four fellow short-listers to scoop the “best unpublished or self-published British eBook” of 2012 for her debut novel, Caposcripti.

Caposcripti is described as a “novel about shrunken heads and dropouts, language and voyeurism, set in London and the Amazon basin”. Self-published in late 2011, it is available both in print and as an ebook for Kindle and iDevices (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch).

The judging panel for the Kidwell-e Ebook Award — consisting of Wendy Berliner (Head of Education for The Guardian's online professional networks), author and Welsh National Opera dramaturg Simon Rees, Peter Newsom (Mediterranean Sales Rep for Faber), award-winning historian David Davies and best-selling Welsh author Julian Ruck — felt Caposcripti “best demonstrated the qualities of innovation, quality and entertainment in e-book fiction”.

Rhiando, 39, was presented with a £10,000 pound cheque and trophy at the Kidwell-e Festival — the UK's first book festival dedicated to ebooks and digital publishing —which took place in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, West Wales, on the last weekend in July.

Festival and prize founder Julian Ruck, author of the Ragged Cliffs Trilogy said: “The Kidwell-e Ebook Award is is designed to encourage creativity and provide the best new writing talent with a platform to help launch their literary careers.

“All the short-listed titles were strong contenders, but Zelda Rhiando's Caposcripti was in particular a highly innovative and readable novel.

“Hopefully, the £10k prize will allow Zelda to devote more time to her writing career and serve as a stepping stone to greater things.”

Zelda Rhiando, a digital media professional, said: “The Kidwell-e Ebook Award is an amazing prize to win.

“I'll be using the £10k prize money to fund a research trip to Japan for my next book 'A Fist Full of Cherries'.

“The doors of publishers have been firmly closed for years so perhaps this award will open them for me. If not, I've now got plenty of money to market myself.”

The full list of short-listed titles for the Kidwell-e Ebook Award were Caposcripti, by Zelda Rhiando; Fear and Magic, by Peter Poole; Merry Baker, by Steven A. Robinson; Curse of Ancient Shadows, by Rod Tyson, and Devil's Chimney, by Tin Larrick.

For more information contact Anthony Harvison at Palamedes PR on 0207 138 3067 or email anthony.harvison@palamedespr.com

Sponsors

Kidwell-e Festival is providing high value sponsorship deals to a limited number of companies looking to develop their national and international brand.

The festival offers a unique opportunity to embrace digital books and become trailblazers in how digital books are embraced by the reading public.

The explosion in eBook adoption globally ensures the festival is reaching out to a wide and rapidly growing audience. The festival will provide a sound platform for promoting literacy, ambition and creating aspiration in our young people, both locally and nationally.

We're offering cost effective branding, advertising and education of your company nationally and internationally.

Read more about the Sponsorship Opportunity