According to Publishers Weekly, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s richest award for fiction writers, let readers choose one title to be added to the longlist. The prize, valued at C$50,000, was traditionally awarded to a book selected from a shortlist of titles assembled by a panel of judges. This year, the 18th year of the prize, allowed readers to log on to a website, view all the nominated novels, & vote to add a “Readers’ Choice” title to the longlist.

Elana Rabinovitch, Director of the Giller Prize, said that she & the other prize organizers felt that people had very strong opinions about the books in the contest each year. Readers wanted to see a list of all the books eligible for the prize each year. “Extrapolating on that idea was giving people a voice to determine what they thought deserved to be one of the best books of the year,” said Rabinovitch. “And that just naturally turned into this idea of readers’ choice.”

Just before the close of Reader’s Choice voting, over 2,500 readers cast their vote.