For Artists

1. What if I already have my own web-site?

We can market for you all the better when you already have your own web-site. Because each of the pages on Artists Showroom is optimized for the search engines and because we will have many other marketing tools in place to send people to Artists Showroom, the chances are much higher that someone searching for your type of artwork will find you first at Artists Showroom. Then, since your page on Artists Showroom and the pages for each of your items will all have a link to your own web-site, people can learn even more about you and about your art by clicking through to your site.

2. I already have my art displayed on another site. Why should I also display on ArtistsShowroom.com?

If you were selling in “brick-and-mortar” stores, you wouldn’t limit yourself to only having one store that carried your work. The more outlets you have, the more people will see your artwork and the more you will sell. Besides, Artists Showroom is designed specifically to be not just a “show your portfolio” kind of web-site, but to be a web-site that really knows how to get the right traffic and utilizes all the on-line marketing tools available to really sell your original artwork on the Internet.

3. How do I submit artwork for my page?

Once you have chosen your level of participation and paid for your “page”, you will receive the forms to submit your artwork. You will fill out the information about yourself as an artist, including a biography, your education, major shows where you have exhibited, awards you have received and a personal statement about your work. If you already have digital photos of your work, you will submit these as part of a Submission Form with a description of the item, including height, width and weight, price and size and cost of packaging for shipment, and your choices of a list of keywords that are appropriate to your work that describe the media used, the genre and the subject matter.

4. How do I submit my art if I don’t have it in digital photo form?

If you want us to scan photos of your art and do this all for you, you can mail your photos to us along with a Submission Form for each item (which you can print from the web-site).

The one-time cost for each item, for scanning the photos and data-entering your descriptions and categories, is $10 per item. These costs are in addition to your $50 set-up fee and your monthly subscription plan, but are only charged once for each item. Please enclose a check or money order with your photos and submission forms and mail them to:

Artists Showcase

501 Glenoaks Boulevard
Suite 10-605
Glendale, CA 91202-4039

5. How do I receive my free month for referring another artist?

When any artist signs up for their Artists Showroom page, they will be asked to fill in who referred them to the site. When they put in your name, we will e-mail you to let you know that someone you referred has signed up and that we have credited you with one month on your subscription.

6. What is the difference between Showroom I and Showroom II?

This grid should clarify this:

7. Do I need to have my own PayPal account to sell on Artists Showroom?

No, you do not need to have your own PayPal account. Artists Showroom has our own account which can take payments from credit cards or the purchaser’s PayPal account. This money is then held in escrow for you while you deliver the artwork to the purchaser and then forwarded to you by us when the purchaser accepts the artwork.

8. How do I upgrade to Artists Showroom II or to an annual subscription?

To upgrade your account, simply e-mail us at sales@artistsshowroom.com and let us know that you want to do so. We will contact you by phone to verify your request and arrange for payment.

9. Your keyword choices don’t cover my art. How do I suggest the ones I want?

In the submission process you are allowed to choose from a number of prepared lists of keywords. If your art is not covered by the terms in these lists, please submit your proposed keywords in the space for “Other”. Once approved by Artists Showroom, your submitted terms will be added to the lists.

10. How can you get an article placed in my local paper?

Most local papers are happy to have stories about local artists and will either print them as received or contact the artist for an interview. We can not promise that your local paper will run the press release that we send to them, however we have many years of experience at getting press for our clients and will write a release based on what we know about getting a piece picked up for publication. We will then follow up with the paper to increase the chances of your article getting published.

11. I don’t have a personal photo that I want to put up on the site. What can you use instead?

If you do not submit a photo of yourself to go with your biography, we will use one of your artworks to represent you.

12. How do I make changes of the items I have in my Showroom?

At the level of Showroom I, you are allowed one change per month. This change can be made by e-mailing the photo that you want put up with instructions on which item you want it to replace. At the Showroom II level, you are allowed two changes per month. If you want to make more changes than these, you will be charged $5.00 per change. Photos of artwork that is truly one-of-a-kind should be replaced if sold, although we are willing to keep it up and mark it as “sold” if it is something you want to keep on your page as representational of your work. However, you should notify us if an item is no longer available for sale.

13. Why do you take a 15% Gallery Fee when I’m already paying for the space?

The 15% Gallery Fee is only to cover the expenses and administrative overhead of actual transactions on the web-site. These include charges from PayPal, plus our own administration costs of facilitating the sale between the purchaser and the artist, handling any communication resulting from sale, tracking of the shipment of the artwork and verification that the purchaser has accepted the artwork. Please keep in mind this gallery fee when pricing your artwork for sale.

14. Can I sell the items I have up on Artists Showroom from my own web-site instead?

Yes, you can sell items directly if you wish, but these transactions can not go through our PayPal Shopping Cart. Therefore, there is no guarantee of the funds from Artists Showroom, we will not track the shipping or verify receipt by the purchaser. In other words, this is perfectly permissible, but you are on your own.

15. How can I display more than 10 items?

You can purchase a page for an additional 10 items for a subscription charge of $10 per month. This can be purchased using the regular shopping cart feature on the web-site under “Submit Your Art”. Once you have purchased an additional page, you will receive instructions on up-loading your additional items.

Because every item you submit is optimized for the search function on Artists Showroom website and thereby also optimized for general search engine positioning, we do have this limit on how many items are included in your initial page and in each additional page. However, you may have a total of as many items as you wish on the site, purchased as additional groups of 10.

16. Will you help me with the pricing of my artwork?

Yes, we find that many artists under-price their work and we will tell you if we think you are doing so; and we will make suggestions to you of what we think the optimum price should be for your artwork. Pricing is a function of marketing and we are in a position to see how pricing affects sales on the Internet.

17. Who handles the sales tax on the sales of my artwork?

We will handle the collection of sales tax on your sales and report and pay the appropriate state agencies.

18. How do I get my own Artists Showroom e-mail address and how do I get my e-mail delivered to me?

When you subscribe at the Showroom II level, an e-mail address will be created for you in the format of yourname@artistsshowroom.com. This e-mail address will forward to your existing inbox of the e-mail address that you give us for contacting you. You should make sure that you use the functions in your existing e-mail that will allow recognition of these forwarded e-mails. This gives you the advantage of a professional e-mail address that you can use on your promotional materials or business cards and gives you a more professional look.

19. How do I know when one of my artworks has been sold?When one of your items is purchased, you will receive an e-mail from us with all the details of the purchase, including an Artists Showroom Order Number. We will collect from the purchaser the price of the item including sales tax where appropriate, the cost of packaging, shipping, and insurance. Shipping will be calculated on the web-site, based on information you have provided plus the purchaser’s specifications. We will act as your agent in this transaction, holding the funds in escrow.

If you do not acknowledge receipt of this order within 72 hours, we will call you at the phone number you give us as your contact number. If we receive no acknowledgement from you within 7 days of having sent our first e-mail notification, we will cancel the order and refund the purchaser.

Once you have acknowledged the order, you will then be expected to ship the insured Artwork to the purchaser and to then notify Artists Showroom by e-mail when the item has been shipped. Once the item has been received and accepted by the purchaser, you will receive payment from us. Your payment will include the price of the item, minus the 15% gallery fee, plus the cost of packaging, shipping and insurance. Artists Showroom will collect any applicable sales tax for you and report and pay this to the appropriate States as required.

20. Why do you need the dimensions and the weight of the artwork?

The shopping cart at Artists Showroom will automatically calculate the shipping costs to the purchaser based on his requirements and the dimensions and weight of the packaged artwork. We depend on you for the correct dimensions and weight of the package in order to correctly calculate this charge.

21. How do I figure out the price for packaging my artwork?

Take your artwork to either the US Post Office or to a shipping store and ask them to advise you on the packaging. Even though your artwork will be insured, it is important to do all that you can to insure the safe transit of your art. If special packaging is required (i.e. the building of a crate), the purchaser needs to know this ahead of time.

22. Once my artwork is on the Artists Showroom website, do I still own it?
Absolutely. The ownership of the artwork is always yours. Artists Showroom does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the Artists Showroom web-site. After posting your Content to the web-site, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through Artists Showroom, you hereby grant to Artists Showroom a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, distribute and sell such Content solely on and through the Artists Showroom web-site and related promotional activity.

For Purchasers

1. Do I need a PayPal account to purchase art on the Artists Showroom web-site?

No, you can purchase through our PayPal account with credit cards or a PayPal account of your own.

2. Will the artwork be insured as part of the shipment?

Yes, all artwork purchased on the Artists Showroom web-site will be insured as part of the shipment.

3. Can I buy directly from the artist if I wish?

If you contact the artist directly through e-mail or via the artist’s separate web-site, you may purchase directly from the artist. In this case, however, Artists Showroom can not be responsible for any unsatisfactory transactions and does not act as an escrow account for the funds or for tracking of the purchase. This becomes a transaction strictly between you and the artist.

4. What do I do if I am not happy with the artwork I have purchased?

In the case of purchased artwork being considered unsatisfactory by the purchaser, the purchaser must immediately inform Artists Showroom that they are returning the artwork to the artist. The funds that have been paid by the purchaser will be returned to the purchaser by Artists Showroom upon the artist receiving the returned artwork in satisfactory condition. Artists Showroom acts as an escrow account and funds are not paid to the artist until the purchaser has accepted the artwork. The artwork will be considered “accepted” by the purchaser when it has been delivered plus five days. Under no circumstances should the purchaser attempt to cancel the transaction with PayPal, as this will only cause confusion.

5. What do I do if the artwork is damaged in shipping?
All artwork purchased on the Artists Showroom web-site will be insured for shipment and in the case of artwork arriving in less than satisfactory condition, it is up to the purchaser to save all packaging and immediately report any claim for reimbursement to both the carrier and to Artists Showroom. If the purchaser does not save the packaging, there can be no claim for damage. Artists Showroom will work to see that such claims are paid by the carrier but can not be held responsible for carrier damage to the artwork.

6. If I have a problem with the web-site, who do I contact?

Please contact technical support at help@artistsshowroom.com

7. If I have a problem with the artwork, who do I contact?

Please contact customer service at sales@artistsshowroom.com.