Get your illustrations in front of top publishers at London Book Fair!

The London Book Fair (11–13 March 2025) is one of the most significant events in the publishing industry, bringing together publishers, literary agents, authors, and industry professionals to discuss trends, negotiate rights, and discover new talent.

This year, exactly.ai is collaborating with Art Lab Agency to present a curated selection of illustration styles made with exactly.ai to leading publishers in attendance. Art Lab Agency works with some of the world’s most prominent publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, Usborne, Highlights Magazine, and Scholastic, providing illustrators with valuable opportunities in book cover design, children’s books, graphic novels, and editorial illustration.

This is an exceptional opportunity for illustrators to have their work seen by key decision-makers in the publishing industry. If selected, your portfolio will be presented to art directors and publishers actively looking for fresh talent.

Themes

For this open call we’re looking for talented illustrators working in botanical, food & drink, and lifestyle illustration—perfect for book covers, cookbooks, editorial spreads, and lifestyle publications.

Rules

For this competition we can only accept entries to creative commissions from models trained using your own images. We cannot accept models trained using AI-generated images or which intentionally copy other artists’ work.

How to submit

1. Generate images with your model
2. When you like an image, press the “Competition” button on the top right corner of your screen
3. Choose frame with an image and press "Submit artwork"
4. You will see on a screen all images that you have submitted

While training a model on exactly.ai is a paid service, we want this competition to be open to everyone so we are offering a free month of an exactly.ai subscription to allow every artist to participate.

Training a model on your own artwork allows you to scale up output in order to serve more clients and experiment with your style, all while maintaining full control over your artwork as every model and all the images created with it belongs only to you.

How to claim your free month:

Steps from the video:

1. Sign-up or log-in to exactly.ai.
2. Click the orange "upgrade" button in the top right-hand corner of the workspace.
3. Select to either pay monthly or pay yearly with the toggle at the top. If the discount is applied to a monthly subscription, the promo code will cover the entire cost. If you choose a yearly subscription, the code will provide a discount equivalent to one month’s subscription price and you will be charged.
4. Find the "Private plus" plan and click "Subscribe to Private plus", this will allow you to create more models to test and submit your best-performing one.
5. Proceed to the checkout, you will have to attach a bank card to receive your free month but don't worry you will not be charged.
6. Click "Apply Promotion Code" under "Subtotal", type in BOOKFAIR1 and click "Apply".
7. Continue with the checkout as usual and click "Subscribe" you will not be charged.
8. You will now have 1000 credits applied to your account to train your model and apply to the competition, good luck!

This promo code is valid until 3rd March and can only be used once per customer. You will need to cancel your subscription before it renews or you will be charged.

If it is your first time training an exactly.ai model take a look at our guide to make sure you get the best results.

We’re excited to see the models you train for this unique creative brief. Once you’ve created your artwork, submit via the link below. The selected artist will be chosen by Art Lab after the deadline.

Please share this open call throughout your networks and on social media!