2026 Booooooom Art & Photo Book Award (Due June 5)
2026 Booooooom Art & Photo Book Award
Deadline: June 5th, 2026
Calling all artists, illustrators, and photographers! It’s the return of one of our most popular open calls, the Booooooom Art & Photo Book Award! Once again we are teaming up with our friends over at Bookmobile to offer the chance to have your work published as a standalone book for free! This year, we will be selecting 8 projects to bring to life —each by a different artist, illustrator, or photographer—at zero cost to the individual.
We will be selecting 6 projects to turn into books—each by a different artist, illustrator, or photographer—at zero cost to the individual. On top of that, we will also be choosing 2 additional projects to be turned into smaller perfect bound zines.
If you have a specific series or a cohesive selection of work that you want to turn into a book, we want to see it. We are looking for finished work as opposed to works-in-progress or otherwise incomplete projects. Members enjoy unlimited zine and book proposals. If you’re not a member you can learn more about becoming one here.
Even if you are not a member you are welcome to submit one (1) Zine proposal for FREE. To submit a full Book proposal however, you must either be a member or pay a fee. Members enjoy unlimited submissions to both the zine and book components.
Have a look below at some of the beautiful books and zines created by last year’s winners, and if you scroll to the bottom you can see more images and info about each project!
Independently owned and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bookmobile began as a design and typesetting production house in 1982, then started offering print services in 1996, and distribution services in 2004. When your books come to Bookmobile, they get the benefit of forty-one years of know-how. If you want to learn more about Bookmobile, you can check out their website here.
We know it’s a dream for many of you to publish a book of your own work and this is a chance to do it without all the costs. These will be your books, not ours, so each of you will have full control of the design and layout. We will happily provide assistance/guidance if you need it, but the book design will ultimately be your responsibility.
So now you just need to decide whether you’d like to submit a zine or a book proposal! Once again, anyone can submit one zine proposal for FREE. To submit a proposal to make a full book, you must be a Booooooom member or you can pay a fee of $20 (early bird price). Members can submit unlimited book and zine proposals, so if you have more than one book idea this may appeal to you. You can learn more about being a member here.
Important Stuff:
We are looking for a cohesive selection of finished work that you want to turn into a zine/book (as opposed to works-in-progress or otherwise incomplete projects).
You must submit 10 images of your work and describe the focus of your proposal. You may submit as many times as you like however one thoughtful submission is better than three half-baked ones. Quality over quantity!
Multiple submissions only makes sense if you have separate book ideas (maybe one is a book of portraits and the other is a collection of street photography). Please do not make multiple submissions for the same book idea.
Maximum size to upload: 2500 x 2500 px (images do not need to be square, these are simply the max height and width so we aren’t opening thousands of massive files).
Format for naming your files: FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME_01.JPG
Everyone will be notified whether they are selected or not via email. It generally takes our team a minimum of 8 weeks to go through all the submissions (varies depending on the amount), please be patient.