The votes have been cast, checked and counted. The first three books to go through to the next round of competition are: Hello Friend We Missed You by Richard Owain Roberts (Parthian), with 74 votes. Underdogs: Tooth and Nail by Chris Bonnello (Unbound) with 62 votes. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press) with 55 votes. Thank you to everyone who voted. It has been heartening to see so much enthusiasm for writers and literature. Thanks especially to Lisa Jones for her spreadsheet skills and for validating every single vote, and to the comment moderators at the Guardian for keeping things honest. Congratulations are also due to the authors who have made it through so far. And commiserations to those who didn’t make it. More than 80 books received votes in double figures. The competition has been close and hard-fought throughout the fortnight of voting. More than 1,400 people voted and if you are one of them, you still have an important stake in the competition. You can influence things as we move through the next rounds, by reading and commenting on the chosen books as we post reviews. You can also join in the final vote in October. You might even find another book to fall in love with. On that subject, our preliminary very short shortlist will be lengthened to a more conventional six books next Monday, 24 August, as three more books are added: one selected by last year’s judges and one from each of our two nominated book champions for this year: bookshop Book-ish in Crickhowell and Harrogate library, current holders of the library of the year award. We will be starting the search for three judges to help steer this year’s competition. If you’re interested in becoming one of them and having your opinion count alongside the public vote in the final round, please check in next Monday. For now, anyone keen to be a judge should review these sections from our supercalifragilisticexpialidocious terms and conditions: 12. Three readers will be selected by the Guardian to form a panel of judges from those readers who have made substantial contributions to the discussion of the shortlisted books. The process by which these readers are chosen is also left studiously vague and at the Guardian’s discretion. These judges undertake to read at least three of the six-book shortlist before the final judging meeting. 13. A judging meeting will be organised online on the morning of Monday 26 October 2020. The winner of the public vote will be allotted two votes at this meeting. The reader judges will each have one vote and will come to a decision on the overall winner in a live online event, with Sam Jordison wielding a casting vote, if required. And no kvetching. I’ll soon start reading the books on the shortlist in alphabetical order at the rate of about one a week, and I’ll post my thoughts here. Please join in and post your own below the line. It’s shaping up to be another very interesting year.