Come browse through my greeting-card-writing link collection!
Contents at a Glance
Writers' Guidelines
- Design Design
- Traditional, contemporary, "hip traditional," or whimsical. Pays $50.
- Designer Greetings
- Humor (cute or witty, but always "safe for Grandma") and traditional (rhymed or unrhymed). Snail mail submissions only.
- NobleWorks
- Submit copy and images together, or apply to be on their mailing list, and they will send you images to be captioned. Pays $150. Edgy, campy, and often, but not always, risque. Funny cards that "can charm the most jaded of urban dwellers."
- Oatmeal studios
- Conversational humor cards and notepads. They're a tough market to crack, but they are very nice to work with. Pays $75.
- Papyrus
- They say, "Witty humor is always in demand! Cute remarks, silly puns, clever quips, double entendres and simple visual gags" are all good. But avoid off-color and sophomoric humor. They also buy short, conversational contemporary, and for holidays, unrhymed traditional/sentimental. Snail mail submissions only! Pays up to $150 (??)
- Peaceable Kingdom Press
- Write text to go with their illustrations. Primarily geared towards kids. Have to apply to be on their list. Pays $50.
- P.S. Greetings ( Fantus Paper Products)
- Mostly traditional cards, with some alternative. Submit via snail mail. They don't say how much they pay. I don't know anyone who has sold to them.
- Smart Alex
- "Funny, edgy, and risque" cards. They respond very quickly. Not sure, but I think they pay $75.
Samples
- Andrews McMeel
- Humor
- Avanti Press
- Photo cards with short captions inside
- Comstock
- Shock humor
- Ephemera
- Buttons and refrigerator magnets -- edgy humor
- Gramma Burp
- Humor with retro images
- Hallmark Shoebox
- Humor
- Intergreet
- This is a wholesaler. They carry different brands, including American Greetings humor
- Kalan
- Shock humor
- Nobleworks
- Edgy humor
- Oatmeal
- Humor
- Papyrus
- Humor and non-humor
- Snafu
- Humor with drawings
- someecards
- Edgy humor
Humor writers, don't miss this
- Trends in greeting cards
- Card companies publish humor based on everyday life events.
General advice
Sandra Louden's site
0 points
You're a what? Greeting card writer
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Going for the Knockout Punch!
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Write (And Draw) Your Way To The Greeting Card Genre Success!
This is another version of the "Breaking into more...0 points
Market Listings from Absolute Markets
Written in 2001.0 points
Market Listings from Unforgotten cards
Good list, though some items out of date.0 points
It Takes a Sense of Humor -- Freelance Greeting Card Writing Today
Good article! (Follow link, and scroll down about more...0 points
Holidays
- American Greetings predicts Top 10 Christmas card trends
- (November 2006)
About the companies
- Oatmeal Studios
- The story of how two ex-New Yorkers founded this Vermont card company. (Nation's Business, November 1990)
- Smart Alex
- Interview with Smart Alex founder Jay Blumenfeld (Inc.com January 2008)
- Someecards
- Company founded by a former writer for the Onion.
Writing captions for pictures
- 19 ideas for writing funny cartoon captions
- This talks about entering the New Yorker cartoon captioning contest, but I think it applies just as well to captioning pictures for greeting card companies.
Rejection sucks
Card companies usually buy only a tiny fraction of the ideas that they receive, so for a freelance card writer, the rejection never stops.
But misery truly does love company, so read on:
But misery truly does love company, so read on:
- Hallmark's rejected ideas
- A full-time staff writer for Hallmark said that in the 18 years he's been writing cards, he's written 80,000 ideas, and only 7,000 of those actually became cards. So even a full-time pro, with all of the resources of Hallmark at his disposal, gets most of his ideas turned down!
The Shoebox staff collect ideas that make them laugh but were turned down for being unsellable, often because they cross over the line of good taste. They dub these ideas "Funny, But No," and post them on a huge fabric "No" that spans an office wall. - Samples of Hallmark's "Funny, But No" ideas
- From NPR.
- "Funny, But No" for Father's Day
- From the Shoebox blog
- Very fine lines
- A story of freelance cartoonists who submit to the New Yorker, where their chances of acceptance are slight (sound familiar?), and yet they persevere, week after excruciating week. Inspiring, in an odd kind of way.
Funny, but no
Rejection Collections
Comedy Writing Secrets
More books
And a few more books
Freelance writing books on eBay
Writer swag
by Eeek
I've been doing freelance greeting card writing on and off for 20 years! Eeek!
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