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Time to Vote! Announcing the Nominees of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards
Vote now in the Opening Round! »
Your vote counts! We need your help selecting the best books of the year during the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards, our eighth-annual event where readers select the best-of-the-best books across 20 categories.
As you've rated your favorite books of 2016, we've been paying attention. We've analyzed the data from the hundreds of millions of books added, rated, and reviewed this year to determine which books made the cut in our Opening Round. These 300 initial nominees have a combined average rating of 4.11 stars and have been added on Goodreads more than 5.3 million times.
Starting today, you can choose among 15 top-rated books in each of the categories including Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Young Adult Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Nonfiction, and Debut Goodreads Author. If you don't see your favorite in a category, we also accept write-in votes during this round only! There are three rounds of voting. The Opening Round lasts until November 6; these results determine which books make it into the Semifinals. We also know how passionate you are about your favorites, so there are plenty of ways to share your picks on social media as well—#GoodreadsChoice.
Opening Round (November 1 until November 6) Head to the Goodreads Choice Awards page and start voting! You have the option to vote for one of the nominees or write-in a book of your choice. A head's up—only books released between November 16, 2015 and November 15, 2016 can be considered.
Semifinal Round (November 8 until November 13) Similar to the opening round, you can vote for one book in each category. There are 20 nominees, the 15 from the previous round and the top five write-ins for each category.
Final Round (November 15 until November 27) This is it; the final round of votes! You can vote for 1 out of the 10 top voted nominees in each category. The winners in all categories will be announced on December 6! Cue the confetti! So, what are you waiting for?
Vote for the best books of 2016! »Comments Showing 1-50 of 80 (80 new)
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Petra on hiatus but getting better.Happy New 2024!
(last edited Oct 31, 2016 09:43PM)
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Oct 31, 2016 08:12PM
There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas publishing. The voting should include Nov & Dec 2015 to be fair.
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Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas publishing. The..."Agreed! The awards should take place in January.
Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas publishing. The..."In their rules they state "books released between November 16, 2015 and November 15, 2016 can be considered"
And "If you don't see your favorite in a category, we also accept write-in votes during this round only!" so you can nominate the books from last year
Thank you for that information, Sophia! :D
How come unreleased books are "officially nominated"? It does not sound fair.
I always forget how soon this is. I thought I had more time to catch up on some books! Two things bug me though:1. It seems some books are released after the voting period closes but before the period for next year. (For example, it says Heartless comes out on the 8th.)
2. I wish YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy weren't lumped together. Seriously. The adult versions get their own categories.
Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas publishing. The..."If a book is released in December 2016, it will be considered for the awards of 2017, just like how books of Nov and Dec 2015 have been considered for 2016 awards.
Kate wrote: "I wish YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy weren't lumped together. Seriously. The adult versions get their own categories. "
I second that. Sci-fi and fantasy honestly feel like very different genres. xP
Gosh this has come around quickly! I love this time of year :)
Hard to choose between Empire of storm, Crooked kingdom and sword of glass! Also as much as I love Brandon Sanderson and N.K.Jemisan, I'm afraid the vote just had to go to Harry Potter.
So not cool pitting Richard Engel's book against the "Hamilton" musical bible! WAAAYY to hard to decide. Both were fantastic reads.
How are the initial nominees selected? The opening paragraph mentions books added and ratings, but that is vague. Are there other factors like critical buzz around a book?
Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas publishing. The..."Completely agree with you.
message 14:
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Petra on hiatus but getting better.Happy New 2024!
(last edited Nov 01, 2016 05:59AM)
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Sophia wrote: "In their rules they state "books released between November 16, 2015 and November 15, 2016 can be considered"."How many people do you think know of this rule? The blog and the headers all say books released in 2016, not once does it say also those released in Nov and Dec 2015. I don't think I would be wrong in saying that the vast majority of people will go by that and not check the rules. Also I do not see a link to these rules. I am sure it is there but it isn't prominent.
If GR wanted people to vote for books from the last two months of 2015 they would a) have made sure that the blog and headlines said it, and b) have some nominated. I don't see any that I recognise, but I may be wrong on that.
Yet again a list of titles I've never even heard of, let alone had the opportunity to read. Am I alone in wondering just where in hell does Goodreads get these lists from?! Every year the list of books I can vote for gets shorter and shorter. I find this exclusion extremely frustrating and I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Kirmizi wrote: "How come unreleased books are "officially nominated"? It does not sound fair."They do that every year, nominating books that nobody has even had a chance to read yet. Surely that violates their own rules?
Sophia wrote: "Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas..."But you don't. I tried to nominate a half-dozen published books, readily available on Amazon, etc, and the link takes us to a comment page in which the comments section is frozen. Very unfair.
Absynthe wrote: "Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major month for Xmas..."I was just wondering about this! I assumed they included Nov-Dec in the following year, but is that not the case?
The fact that I have only read two of the books on these lists shows how far behind I have been in reading :(
I was wondering about books released in November and December but then I actually read the post. Now my only comment is that they should be for books released from November 15, 2015 to October 31, 2016. Subsequent years should go from Nov 1 - Oct 31. Starting the nomination process 15 days before the eligible release date cutoff is a mistake. It's a brief window but those 15 days mean at least a couple books are going to miss out.There is no issue about the rest of November and December.
But they still don't allow for nominations like it says they do. :(
It would not allow me to write in Ada Twist, Scientist for Best Picture Books, but its publication date was 9/6/16. What gives?
Sammm wrote: "Kate wrote: "I wish YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy weren't lumped together. Seriously. The adult versions get their own categories. "
I second that. Sci-fi and fantasy honestly feel like very different ..."
agree
Sarah wrote: "It would not allow me to write in Ada Twist, Scientist for Best Picture Books, but its publication date was 9/6/16. What gives?"Sarah - try now - it didn't have an original pub date listed
C wrote: "Sophia wrote: "Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec is a major..."Do the books have original pub dates set?
Were they first published elsewhere and now released in US?
The librarian group typically has a thread set up for books that may need fixing to be entered
Petra X wrote: "Sophia wrote: "In their rules they state "books released between November 16, 2015 and November 15, 2016 can be considered"."How many people do you think know of this rule? The blog and the heade..."
This is true. Unless a person clicks the link on rules and guidelines, they won't know this, and most people aren't going to do this/notice it - therefore, books published that late in the year do not get fair consideration.
I would love to know how the nominees are selected. Is it most read? Critical acclaim? Show of hands at an office meeting? It says books added and ratings, but there are books here that aren't as highly rated as others. I agree that voting should be in January for books published the previous year.
Dee wrote: "C wrote: "Sophia wrote: "Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov & Dec. Dec ..."Yes Dee, and those publication dates were within 2-3 months from today (July and August 2016), and originally published in the USA. I tried to post to the librarian thread but it says it is closed. :(
All of these nominations are boring AF.
C wrote: "Dee wrote: "C wrote: "Sophia wrote: "Petra X wrote: "There is something really wrong about 'best books that every single year includes only the first 10 months & excludes all books published in Nov..."Look for the librarian thread that says GR Awards - it's open because I just was in it
It makes gut be that they don't have an original pub date set (there are 2 places in the database to record and if one is blank you can't nominate)
I am not impressed with the selections this year, sadly. I didn't bother to finish voting in most of the categories.
Joanne wrote: "I am not impressed with the selections this year, sadly. I didn't bother to finish voting in most of the categories."Joanne wrote: "I am not impressed with the selections this year, sadly. I didn't bother to finish voting in most of the categories."
No worries , Donald Trump promises to make Goodreads selections great again !
I was just wondering how you do the write-in nomination?
Series I’ve read in Fantasy: Charley Davidson, Iron Druid, Riyria, Others, Kate Daniels, Shades of Magic, Fever, Checquy Files, Mercy Thompson, Mistborn, Harry Potter, Broken Earth.There are also 3 standalones under 10k ratings I haven’t read.
Series I’ve read in YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi: Winner's, Raven, Throne of Glass, Dark Artifices, Ember in the Ashes, Red Queen, Court of Thorns, Wrath and Dawn, Selection, Six of Crows, Reckoners, Rebel of Sands, Lorien. Also read and loved We Are the Ants, and I'll read Heartless when it comes out though I'll likely be disappointed by Marissa Meyer again.
So...I have experienced practically everyone in the fantasy categories. Only a fan of a few and I'm unsure if any of the series installments merits a vote.
Joanne wrote: "I am not impressed with the selections this year, sadly. I didn't bother to finish voting in most of the categories."You can do a write in selection though. Look at the bottom of each category.
Some have mention this but, the year hasn't end yet. To exclude / giving out votes for books haven't been published is not right.Shouldn't it be better to let the year end & have everyone settle & ponder before voting?
ScarlettMi wrote: "Now my only comment is that they should be for books released from November 15, 2015 to October 31, 2016. Subsequent years should go from Nov 1 - Oct 31. Starting the nomination process 15 days before the eligible release date cutoff is a mistake."I completely agree! In fact, I commented exactly that last year when I noticed. And a lot of people were mentioning that they already said that the previous year... and this goes on...
Every year they do this! Every year some people comment how unfair and illogical it is to nominate books not yet released, and every year they ignore it and do the same again :(
Rory wrote: "I would love to know how the nominees are selected. Is it most read? Critical acclaim? Show of hands at an office meeting? It says books added and ratings, but there are books here that aren't as h..."I would like to know how they choose the nominees too!
But I can tell you at least that being most read is not a requisite. Heartless will only be released in November 8th and is nominated. Except people who got advanced copies, no one had the chance to read it yet. The same happened to Winter last year.
It would have more sense (and it would be easier for voters) to have this award for the "best books" of the year in the first month of the following year, but I guess if the winners are announced at the beginning of December, this boosts the Christmas sales.That's my explanation, because it's a suggestion from users that is the same each year, but it's never addressed (along with other popular suggestions: more categories, more internationalization that is always "planned" but never accomplished).
Su wrote: "Rory wrote: "I would like to know how they choose the nominees too!"Taken from Rules and Eligibility link on the front page of the voting pages
"2016 Eligibility
Books published in the United States in English, including works in translation and other significant rereleases, between November 16, 2015, and November 15, 2016, are eligible for the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. Books published between November 16, 2016, and December 31, 2016, will be eligible for the 2017 awards.
We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 15 books in each category. Opening round official nominees must have an average rating of 3.50 or higher. Write-in votes may be cast for eligible books with any average rating, and write-in votes will be weighted by the book's Goodreads statistics to determine the top five books to be added as official nominees in the Semifinal Round. A book may be nominated in no more than one genre category, but can also be nominated in the Goodreads Author category. Only one book in a series may be nominated per category. An author may receive multiple nominations within a single category if he or she has more than one eligible series or more than one eligible stand-alone book."
We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 15 books in each category.But a great many of the books currently being voted on don't publish until this month! So how can they possibly be reviewed and rated on Goodreads when we, the readers, haven't even had a chance to read them?! This has happened every year that Goodreads has done the Vote.
I always get excited when the nominees are announced and then are inevitably disappointed when I see the options. How are these even picked? Some of the fiction options don't even have very good reviews on Goodreads! Are publishers influencing this in order to get their books picked?I know there's a write-in option, but the books clearly listed are going to be the books that are voted for.
Inken wrote: "We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 15 books in each category.But a great many of the books currently being voted on don't publish..."
Before I state this, I'm not saying I agree with this however ...... for high profile books such as Heartless (this year) and Winter (last year) the publishers send out a huge amount of ARCs which results in the books having a large amount of ratings and reviews before the official release date. So that, alongside the high rating it's getting means it ends up in the mix.
Lynn wrote: "We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 15 books in each category."Yes, I read the rules. But saying "we analyze statistics" is very vague. What statistics?
Statistics is a collection of numerical facts or measurements, so which are the ones used to choose the books? We know the publish date (in U.S. in English) is one of them and that having an average rating of 3.50 or higher is another. Other than that we can only guess since they never disclosed the used formula.
Lynn wrote: "Before I state this, I'm not saying I agree with this however ...... for high profile books such as Heartless (this year) and Winter (last year) the publishers send out a huge amount of ARCs which results in the books having a large amount of ratings and reviews before the official release date. So that, alongside the high rating it's getting means it ends up in the mix."Yes, you make a good point! But even with the ARCs I would say it's only possible if the time since release (which in the case of Heartless would be negative for now) is also part of the formula because while Heartless has in the order of one thousand rates&reviews, the other books in the same category seem to be in the order of tens of thousands.
Kate wrote: "I always get excited when the nominees are announced and then are inevitably disappointed when I see the options. How are these even picked? Some of the fiction options don't even have very good re..."I should state that I get how the books are picked, it was rhetorical question I posted in my comment. If they were looking at the statistics for fiction books, the ones they picked don't make much sense. Some of the books have around a 3.5 rating, like My Name is Lucy Barton. I think a book with a better rating would be a better pick, like The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper.
I get this is a thankless process for Goodreads, but I just feel the selection for the nominees has declined in the past couple of years.
Petra X wrote: "The voting should include Nov & Dec 2015 to be fair.Good news — they are included! We include books published (in the United States in English, including works in translation and other significant rereleases) between November 16, 2015 and November 15, 2016.
Marc-André wrote: "How are the initial nominees selected? The opening paragraph mentions books added and ratings, but that is vague. Are there other factors like critical buzz around a book?"
In the Opening Round, the 15 nominees in each of the 20 categories of the Goodreads Choice Awards are selected by our editors based on Goodreads data, including ratings, reviews, and shelvings. Our goal is to identify the books that are both the most popular and well-rated by our members.
We also allow members to cast write-in votes for eligible books in the Opening Round.
