The current system takes the two runners up from last month's poll, two books with the most recommendations from the current month's thread, and the winner of the contest can submit one book of their own for the poll.
Wildcard contest:
Post a picture of your copy of the book with a highlighter. Optional: photoshop the cover of the book to include a highlighter. Best picture wins the contest and can pick one book for the next month's poll.
Now that we've started I'm open for changes on how this works going forward. Although I liked the rules that were originally suggested for the book of the month club they won't work long term. What you've suggested is a better system, in my opinion.