Entries are stripped
The ballot shows a title, a cover and an extract. Publisher, budget and blurb are removed before a reader sees it.
The Kingsley & Hart Readers' Choice Award
The judges are the readers.
No panel. No sponsor. No publisher's thumb on the scale. Entries are anonymised, every ballot is verified and hash-chained, and the count is published beside the result.
- One reader, one vote
- Entries anonymised
- Ballots published
- Nothing for sale
How a verdict is made
Transparent by construction, not by promise.
Readers are verified
A vote needs a working email and a one-time code. One reader, one ballot, for the whole award.
Ballots are chained
Each ballot is hashed with the one before it. Remove or insert a single vote and every hash after it stops matching, publicly.
The count is published
Live, below. Not a press release at the end — the running tally, visible while voting is open.
On the ballot
Voting opens with the first entries.
Entries open shortly.
The ledger
Every ballot, in the open.
No names, no email addresses — a one-way hash of each voter, chained to the ballot before it. Anyone can check that the chain is unbroken.
- The chain starts with the first ballot.
Enter your book. Then let go of it.
Entry is ₹4,999, and it buys a place on the ballot — never a place on the winners' list. If that distinction matters to you, we are the right desk.
One reader, one vote