Terms and conditions for the Not the Booker prize 2013 Jul 22nd 2013, 09:55
Here are the rules. No kvetching
1. To nominate a book for the "Not the Booker prize" competition (the "Competition") please submit your nomination in the comments section on the associated article [NEEDS LINK] with the word "nomination" included in the comment. There. That wasn't too bad.
2. By nominating a book in the Competition you are accepting this excuse for a set of terms and conditions, and entering into the spirit of positivity and awesomeness which traditionally accompanies the Not the Booker prize.
3. You are responsible for the cost (if any) of sending votes and nominations to us – though we're hoping that shouldn't be a problem. Votes and nominations must be posted as comments on the appropriate article on the Guardian website.
4. Only one nomination is permitted per person – and if you change your mind about what that nomination should be, we reserve the right to a) miss the post where you change your mind and b) laugh up our sleeves at your indecision.
5. All initial nominations must be received by midnight on 4 August 2013. Nominations received after that date and time will not be considered for the competition, though there will always be a nagging doubt at the back of our minds about what might have been. A shortlist will be selected from this long longlist by a vote. To be eligible for this ballot, each voter must have submitted a reader review of one of their chosen titles. Reader reviews must engage with the book in question, and be of at least 100 words in length. Though to be perfectly honest, we probably won't be counting all that carefully. Voters must include a link to their reader review and the word "vote" in their comment on the associated article.
6. Only publications eligible for the 2013 Man Booker prize are eligible for the Competition. Which is to say, broadly speaking, any "full-length" novel written by a Commonwealth citizen scheduled for publication between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013. It's also gotta be "a unified and substantial work", whatever that means. See a full list of eligibility criteria on the Man Booker prize website.
7. The running of the Competition implies in no way any endorsement of or agreement with the eligibility requirements of the Man Booker prize. We look forward to hearing from you about the state of contemporary fiction in the US, Germany, Guatemala, Kazakhstan …
8. A shortlist of six books will be assembled via a readers' vote. To be eligible for this ballot, each voter must have submitted a reader review of one of their chosen titles. Each reader must vote for two books, from two different publishers – changes of mind will be governed by clause four on indecision. Readers will be invited to cast their vote in the comments field of an article published on guardian.co.uk/books. Voters must include a link to their reader review and the word "vote" in their comment on the associated article. Like we said in clause five. We take no responsibility for the make-up of the Competition shortlist, nor for the continued participation of nominated authors, and we reserve the right to vote ourselves, and to canvas support for nominations the cut of whose jib we happen to like.
9. The Competition shortlist will be debated on guardian.co.uk/books in the following weeks, accompanied by a series of studiously balanced and fair articles about the shortlisted books. The winner will be chosen via a public vote from readers who have submitted reader reviews of their chosen titles in combination with a panel of readers to be selected by a process outlined below. Readers may vote for only one title at this stage – as before changes of mind will be governed by clause four on indecision. A vote in support of one book at shortlist stage does not rule out a subsequent valid vote in support of a different book to win the Competition. Reader reviews may be written at any time before a vote is cast. Voters must include a link to a reader review of one of the shortlisted books and the word "vote" in their comment on the associated article. Votes received after midnight on October 13 will not be counted.
10. Three readers will be selected by the Guardian to form a panel of judges from those readers who have made substantial contributions to the discussion of the shortlisted books. The process by which these readers are chosen is left studiously vague and is at the Guardian's discretion. These judges undertake to read at least three of the six-book shortlist before the final judging meeting.
11. A judging meeting will be organised online on the morning of 14 October 2013. The winner of the public vote will be alloted one vote at this meeting. The reader judges and Sam Jordison will each have one vote and will come to a decision on the overall winner in a live online event. And no kvetching – that's that.
12. The author of the winning book will receive a Guardian mug. They may not want it, but there's nothing we can do about that. No prizes will be awarded to readers for submitting a nomination, voting or judging, but you will have our undying gratitude for taking part, cracking jokes about the entries or sniping from the sidelines, as you see fit. Readers who would like to take a pop at Sam about the balanced and fair nature of any commentary will receive responses which are balanced and fair.
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