RULES and FAQ’s

A lot of answers to a lot of questions.

GENERAL

Can anyone participate?

Yes! All books are accepted into the collection. We do not jury any of the submissions.

After you order a book, we'll mail you a package containing an official The Memoir Project sketchbook with a unique 6-digit barcode on it and detailed instructions about the project.

A few basic rules for creating your Memoir.

Your book must remain within the dimensions of 5 x 7” inches. It can open up to something wonderful (of any size), but it must fold down to the original dimensions. You are welcome to unbind, rebind or alter the book in (almost) any other way. If you want to use a thicker stock of paper, go for it! Your book must stay thinner than half of an inch when closed.

Your B number must remain visible on the book - no covering it. An altered or unreadable number means we have to disqualify you from the project. Please contact us if you damaged your B number.

Don't forget that your book is living in the Brooklyn Art Library and will be held - please try to avoid the use of ties that can come undone, random plastic things that may fall off in transit, art materials that could smudge (like acrylic and gesso paint), glitter and any hazardous materials. Your book should be durable and be able to withstand normal wear and tear.

Do I retain the copyright?

We have a major respect for artist ownership. By submitting to the project, you still retain ownership of your work. We own the physical sketchbook, but your work is your work. You do grant a license to use it as needed for the project, but we do our best to make sure you are always credited. We have NO plans to ever sell the original work, however, if that ever did come up, we MUST contact you with a responsible amount of time for you to respond. PLEASE REVIEW THE FULL TERMS

I'm ready to send my book back.

Make sure to create an account and connect your book first! Feel free to send your book back earlier than the postmark deadline. Late books will still be added to the shelves of our permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library. We promise we'll let you know when we have received your completed book at Brooklyn Art Library when we are able. Please don't email us asking if we received your book. We receive a veritable ton of books in the mail every day, and checking them in by hand can be a very long process! We recommend sending it with delivery confirmation or using UPS. We do our best to be available to sign for packages, however we cannot guarantee it.

What happens after I send my book back?

After the postmark due date, we'll catalog all of that challenge’s books and exhibit them at the library in Brooklyn.

DIGITIZING

How long will it take for my MEMOIR to be digitized?

Due to the size of our staff, we tend to digitize all the books at once after the postmark deadline has passed. We cannot promise your book will be digitized prior to then.

We’re a small team (of six) and every digitized sketchbook is processed manually and scanned by hand, so we really appreciate your patience!

Can I add digitizing to my standard book later?

You can add digitizing later, however, we recommend getting it when you order your book. Depending on the amount of books we have, your book will be added to the end of the queue.

Digital Library FAQ's

All the books that have been purchased with digitizing are digitized after the deadline. We cannot digitize your book earlier than that. We are a small staff and need to do it all at once. Please allow six-eight weeks after the deadline for your book to appear online. Please don't email us about it until after that time.

We are unable to digitize books vertically due to the way our digitizer is processed. Unfortunately, we are unable to issue refunds for vertical books. All of the sketchbooks in the Digital Library are displayed horizontally.

Though it seems high tech, our digitizer is old and tired. Just let us know if something looks off, we don't do it on purpose, things happen, we are only robots, I mean people...

SHIPPING

How do you ship?

We ship via USPS to help lower shipping costs and allow for free shipping to our domestic participants. That means, we do have a small % of books that get lost in transit. We will happily resend your book at no cost to you after two weeks of ship date for domestic orders and six weeks after ship date for international orders. For all international orders, we will send you a USPS tracking number in your confirmation shipment email so that you can watch where your package is on its journey to you!

I just got notified that my order shipped. Where can I track the delivery status of my package?

You will receive a tracking number in the email confirming that your order has shipped!