Café Royal Books Publishing Grant

This year, submissions are open to those using photography to celebrate themes of running or the natural environment.

Criteria

• Submissions are free, global, inclusive open to all, and accepted throughout April.
• To submit, please send up to 50 images—colour or black and white—with a short introduction to you and the work. The images you submit don’t need to be from a single series, but they should be fairly coherent — it doesn’t matter when the work was made. Images for submission should be low-resolution, about 1MB each or 1200px longest side. If selected they will need images of at least 4MB each. Submissions are limited to one per photographer, per award. By submitting, you are stating that the work you submit is yours, that you are the copyright holder, and that you are happy with the detail above.
• They warmly welcome submissions to Café Royal Books. Prior to submission, they kindly ask you to explore the website to familiarise yourself with the type of books and subjects they publish. While the focus is primarily around photography that documents people and the environment, particularly between 1960 and 2005, with connections to Britain and Ireland, this serves more as a guideline to indicate what they generally do not publish.
• They embrace submissions from all individuals, regardless of their level of experience—whether you’re a professional photographer or someone who has only made 30 pictures in their lifetime. Whether you’re well-known, obscure, local, or international, they encourage you to share your work with them. The commitment is to develop Café Royal Books into an inclusive and diverse archive that offers a true reflection of life in Britain, Ireland and beyond.
• They try not to suggest specific subject matters to avoid limiting the scope of submissions. They review all submissions comprehensively. While they tend to publish less rural, farming, or sailing-related content, they still encourage you to submit. They have a particular interest in documenting aspects of change, be it in society, fashion, music, youth or sub-culture, or the urban landscape and high street, although the interests extend beyond these themes.
• Due to the high volume of submissions they receive, they can only respond to submissions that they feel would work, usually within around two weeks. They tend to look around, especially if you have a website. If you haven’t received a response within this timeframe, there’s no need to resend your submission or issue a reminder. There are various reasons a submission might or might not work for them, such as its alignment or clash with the other scheduled publications.
• They operate digitally and lack the capability to scan negatives. They strongly advise scanning negatives for preservation purposes, regardless of whether you’re submitting to them or not. Preserving these visual records safeguards memories and histories from potentially being lost forever.
• They’ll be awarding the grant shortly after, following which, they’ll work with the selected photographer to edit and sequence the book before publishing it. The photographer will receive one fifth of the print run.

For more information, visit Café Royal Books.