Consider writing a Valentine's Day card.
Greeting-card markets are wide open for free-lancers who have a way with words and can write to a variety of card ideas. Greeting cards are a big business, whether they're holiday, special occasion or humorous. If you have a knack for creating short poetry or sentimental prose, writing greeting-card copy might be the way for you to exercise your talents and make a living doing what you enjoy most.
Instructions
1. Write often. Don't narrow yourself to one topic. Write sentimental poems, get-well messages and birthday wishes with a humorous twist. The less you restrict the subjects you write about, the better your chances of selling your work. The key is to be as original as you can or to put a new twist on a classic greeting-card idea. The best way to do this is to look at greeting cards wherever you find them. Knowing what's out there now can help you avoid redundancy.
2. Type your card text in any word processor, one card idea per page. Most greeting-card companies don't want fancy mock-ups. These companies want your text. Formatting a greeting-card submission is usually very simple. In upper-case letters type the word "outside" followed by a colon. Type the text that will appear on the outside of the card. If you want to describe an illustration idea, type "illustration idea" in all upper-case, followed by a colon and the description of your idea for an image. Type the word "inside" in all upper-case letters followed by a colon and the text inside your card. If you have an inside illustration idea, type the words "illustration idea" in upper-case and with a colon below the inside text. That is typically all a greeting card company wants to see. The illustration suggestions are optional.
3. Submit your ideas to companies that purchase greeting card ideas. The Internet is full of companies that post submission guidelines and pay rates right on the website. Most of these companies actively seek writers. Pay varies and is listed in the guidelines, but greeting-card companies typically pay well. You can usually submit card ideas in batches of 10 or more. Writer's Market is another resource for finding greeting-card companies that purchase material. The guidelines will tell you submit, where to submit, the type of material to submit and how much you will be paid.
4. Maximize your time and your postage. When possible, submit your greeting-card ideas by email. You can make a living writing for greeting-card companies, but you should always be writing something new, and you should keep the submissions in circulation.
