Writing Greeting Cards

Writing greeting cards is a fun and rewarding way of earning income at home. Many freelance writers make a decent living coming up with fresh and innovative ideas for greeting cards. Doing work from home writing for greeting card companies may be the right home business idea for you. Use these practical tips to help you get started.

• Which greeting card companies can I approach? There are a number of companies that use freelance writers. Study the most recent copy of The Writer's Market published by Writers Digest Books. You can probably find it in your local library. This book lists greeting card publishers. You can search online for greeting card publishers. If you cannot find a submission guidelines page on the website write or phone the company to find out if they accept freelance submissions. The Greeting Card Industry Directory features the names and addresses of more than 3000 publishers of greeting cards. This directory is available from the Greeting Card Association website at www.greetingcard.org.
• Get the full submission requirements. It is important to know all the submission requirements for the greeting card company you are sending your work to. Ask the greeting card company to send you the guidelines for submission. Study and follow the guidelines carefully to make sure your submission is what the company is looking for.
• Approach smaller greeting card companies. Sumit your work to midsize and smaller companies. The competition will not be so strong. Additionally they will provide a good environment in which to develop your greeting card writer skills as you get more individual attention and feedback.
• Study the market. Study greeting cards that are for sale in the stores, not as a buyer but as a writer. Try to determine the "voice" of the card, the style of writing, how the words work with the design and illustration and the impact of the card. Before writing greeting cards and submitting to a particular publisher study the cards thay have on the market. Match your submission to what they publish.
• Join a greeting card writer group or forum. Search the web for message boards or forums for freelance greeting card writers. These are a great learning and information sharing resource for writing greeting cards.
• Create a portfolio of ideas. To get started writing greeting cards focus on building up a protfolio of ideas ready for submission. You will have to adapt them to meet the submission requirements for each greeting card company but it provides a good base from which to start. Keep a notebook handy at all times to jot down your thoughts and ideas.

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Have fun while making money from home as a freelance greeting card writer. Turn inspiration into income!