What were the best science fiction/fantasy stories you read this past year? Or the best comics? Or the best covers?

Forget about “the best,” really, what new releases in 2011 did you enjoy the most?

Whatever those selections may be, now is your chance to vote for them in the Tor.com 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards! From now until 11:59 PM Friday, January 20th, we’re encouraging Tor.com readers (and SFF fans in general) to vote for their favorites in the following four categories.

Best Novel

Best Short Fiction

Best Comic

Best Book Cover

How to Vote: All votes are write-ins. You can vote for as many titles, stories, and covers released as you want in the comment thread of this post.

Eligibility: The Tor.com Readers’ Choice Awards (or The Stubbies, for short) are more about gauging fan enjoyment of the genre than they are about picking a single winner, so the eligibility guidelines for what can be voted on are pretty simple and relatively wide open.

Best Novel : Must have been published in 2011, doesn’t matter where.

: Must have been published in 2011, doesn’t matter where. Best Short Fiction : Same as Best Novel, except for stories that are under 40,000 words.

: Same as Best Novel, except for stories that are under 40,000 words. Best Comic : Any comic, single issue, strip, or collection – online and/or off, put out in 2011. [Note: This category was originally limited to just Graphic Novel collections.]

: Any comic, single issue, strip, or collection – online and/or off, put out in 2011. [Note: This category was originally limited to just Graphic Novel collections.] Best Book Cover: Must be a book cover, as you’re taking design and typography into account here along with the art. Standalone art (like that which adorns Tor.com’s original fiction) is often pretty pretty pretty, but not eligible.

Wait. What Came Out This Year?: We’ve put together some Google Doc spreadsheets to remind you of the past year’s releases. These are reminders only, not recommendations! If you’d like to vote for something not included in these lists, please do so in the comments—we will count all eligible write-in votes.

We’re also slowly gathering in some cover galleries for your perusal. Like the novel and short fiction lists, these are partial lists mostly meant to jog the memory.

Voting, Winners, Deadlines, etc.: Voting is open between 9 AM Eastern Standard Time, Wednesday, January 11 and 11:59 PM, Friday, January 20. We’ll be posting regular running tallies of the top-voted titles so you can keep track of the action. (Bookmark the Readers’ Choice Awards series index and they’ll show up there consistently.) Winners will be announced once the votes are all tallied and double-checked, at which point we’ll also reveal just what those winners are getting! (If you heard a distant cackle at the end of that sentence, you are definitely on the right track.)

Curious as to the origins of these awards? We did a monstrous Best of the Decade poll last year, with lots of great statistics. (And eventually, an April Fool’s joke that is itself an eligible nominee in the short fiction category!)

Ready? Vote away!