The Folio Prize logo. Photo: AFP
Over one hundred authors, critics and academics will make up The Folio Academy, and each is
to put forward three novels for consideration, in order of preference, with the top sixty then automatically nominated for the prize.
Participants include Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, J.M. Coetzee, Bret Easton Ellis, Philip Pullman and Zadie Smith.
That's in contrast to another established British book prize, the Booker, whose format prompted the Folio Prize creation, and which relies upon publishers to submit no more than two titles apiece.
For the Folio, titles eligible must be published in the UK and in the English language and can hail from any genre, meaning that authors from other countries will be in with a chance, and the likes of crime and sci-fi given an opportunity to progress.
A five-strong judges panel drawn from the Academy then selects a further twenty titles for consideration.
After deliberation, a shortlist of eight is chosen by five judges drawn from the Academy, and one winner will be presented with a £40,000 check in March 2014; the Booker delivers a grand prize of £50,000.