Now into its second decade, the reader-driven books award is introducing some exciting new features. But we still need your votes

The Not the Booker prize is back – for the 11th time. We’ve been uncovering excellent novels for more than a decade, and that’s a mighty fine thing. But let’s not dwell on the past, because the future promises yet more excitement. Like many 11-year-olds, the Not the Booker is changing.

We still want to find this year’s best novels and uncover a few gems that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. We still want to have a serious discussion about literature and prize culture. We still want to have fun. And we still want to hear from you about the books that matter. So this year’s Not the Booker prize begins like every other, with nominations for this year’s best fiction on this very blog and a public vote to whittle those nominations down to a shortlist.

It’s here that the important change comes in. This year the public vote will choose three novels for our shortlist. One other book will be selected by the 2018 judging panel. And – here’s the new bit – inspired by a suggestion below the line from Ongley, we’re enlisting the help of Chester’s award-winning Storyhouse library and the 2019 independent bookseller of the year, Edinburgh’s Golden Hare Books. They’ll each select one novel to complete our shortlist of six.

We’ll read those in turn, as always, at the rate of about one a week. I’ll post my thoughts here on the site and – crucially – you’ll be able to post your own opinions about the books below the line. Then there’s the final vote, the judges’ panel and the beautiful moment when we get to bestow an actual Guardian mug on the lucky winner.

But that’s then – and this is now. Which is to say, it’s time to start compiling our very long longlist and discovering a wealth of new talent. As usual, we are asking for nominations for any book eligible for this year’s Booker prize: it has to be a novel, first written in English and published in the UK or Ireland by a British or Irish publisher between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2019. (US authors are still allowed.) All you need to do is to post a comment naming the book and author below the line, alongside the word “nomination”. We’ll be grateful if you can also name the publisher – and feel free to say why you like the book.

At this stage, we only need one nomination for each title. So if someone else has already nominated your favourite novel, there’s no need to nominate it again – just tell us what it is about the novel that makes it so great.

If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty, you can find all of our terms and conditions here – and how radiant and beautiful they are. We’re also going to be looking out for three judges from those contributing to the discussion of this year’s shortlist. More on that soon. For now, we need those nominations for our longlist. Let’s go!