Not the Booker longlist: vote now to decide the 2019 shortlist

This year’s Booker longlist has been described as “an absolute gift for bookselling” and seems popular with critics and the book-buying public alike, which is excellent. I hope it’s going to be a vintage year. But still: it isn’t as long as our longlist.

This year, a mighty 174 books have been nominated for the Not the Booker prize. That’s an impressive indication of the scale of publishing in English-language fiction and of the enthusiasm you guys have for reading. But now, it’s time to start talking about how good some of these books are. To do that, we need to produce our shortlist.

The first part of that process is to whittle down 174 books to a far more manageable three, which we will then add to three more – one selected by last year’s judges and one from each of our two nominated book champions for this year, Storyhouse library in Chester and Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh.

And when I say “we”, I really mean “you”. This is part of the competition that you control, because it’s your vote that will help decide which three books go forward into the next round.

Voting is easy – or it will be if you read the following instructions carefully:

In order for your vote to be counted and comply with our all killer, no filler terms and conditions, you need to choose two books from the longlist below, from two different publishers, and accompany those choices with a short review of at least one of your chosen books. It would also be very helpful if you could include the word “vote”.

We’re hoping for a minimum of 100 words in the review. We won’t be counting all that carefully, as there are only so many hours in the day – but at the very least make it look like you care and please give us your honest feelings.

That’s it. As I say, it should be easy, but every year a few people get confused and we’re unable to count their votes. So please check your entry carefully to be certain that your voice is heard.

You’ve got just over one week. The next deadline is 23.59 BST on Monday 5 August 2019. Please make sure you nominate your favourite books before then – and feel free to tell all your friends to take part too. I’ll be back here on 6 August to post the results.

As is traditional, before we get to the list, I have to thank Tips, links and suggestions stalwart and all-round superstar Lisa Jones for her help in checking eligibility and titles. And as is usual, when you see the size of the list, you’ll understand why I’m so grateful for her spreadsheet skillz. Here it is:

Sulaiman Addonia - Silence Is My Mother Tongue (The Indigo Press)

Nina Allan - The Dollmaker (Quercus Books)

Eleanor Anstruther - A Perfect Explanation (Salt)

Louis Armand - GlassHouse (Equus Press)

Robbie Arnott - Flames (Atlantic Books)

Sefi Atta - The Bead Collector (Myriad Editions)

Kate Atkinson - Big Sky (Doubleday)

Mona Awad - Bunny (Head of Zeus)

Chandler Baker - Whisper Network (Sphere Publishing/Little, Brown)

JA Baker - The Woman at Number 19 (Bloodhound Books)

Jo Baker - The Body Lies (Doubleday)

Damian Barr - You Will Be Safe Here (Bloomsbury)