GREETING CARD WRITING

Writing the verse or sentiment for greeting cards for all occasions. Greeting card companies pay freelancers for individual card ideas, or ideas for a card line. Greeting cards fall into a number of different categories, such as baby announcements, conventional, humorous, inspirational, invitations, juvenile, religious, studio, and wedding announcements. In these different categories of cards they also need them for all the holidays, seasons, or occasions: anniversary, birthday, Christmas, congratulations, Easter, Father's Day, friendship, get well, Halloween, miss you, Mother's Day, new baby, relatives (all occasions), St. Patrick's Day, sympathy, Thanksgiving, thank you, Valentines, and wedding.

Payment for individual ideas is typically an outright payment, not a royalty situation. If the idea is for a line of cards, it may be handled on a royalty basis. When submitting ideas by mail, put each on a separate index card or page, indicating the text that will appear on both the outside and the inside of the card. Give each idea an identifying number, plus include your contact information on each one. You can usually send several ideas at a time. With the ideas on individual cards, the publisher can select those they want and return the others. The company's writers' guidelines will tell you how many you can submit at one time, if they want them by mail or email, as well as their pay rate. If they prefer email submissions, type them up with the same information you would have on the index card and separate the ideas with a solid line across the page.

Greeting cards are a good outlet for short poems that fit the holiday or season, however all greetings would not be poems; some are gags or one-liners, or something inspirational or religious. Visit a local card shop to get a better feel for the types of cards the different greeting card publishers prefer and submit your ideas accordingly. For more information on writing greeting cards, go to: http://www.absolutewrite.com/specialty_writing/greeting_cards1.htm. You will find listings of greeting card markets in Writer's Market and the Christian Writers' Market Guide.