Birthday card
Greeting cards are a great way of celebrating special occasions, sending thanks to people, sharing support at difficult times or simply keeping in touch with one another so the greeting card industry continues to thrive. The key to a successful card is the use of appropriate verses, messages, artwork, jokes and cartoons. If you have a way with words, are adept at art or love coming up with new jokes, then producing words or artwork for greeting cards on a freelance basis can be a very rewarding job.
Instructions
1. Identify the specific greeting card companies that you're interested in approaching. There are thousands of different companies, but not all produce the same type of card. If you're an artist, then look for companies that produce the type of artwork you do, or if you're a writer, then find companies that make cards with the type of greeting or joke you're good at writing.
2. Find out get in contact with the greeting card companies. This is crucial, so you know who to send your work to and will involve some research to find out the relevant details. Look on the back of greeting cards you've bought or look up the companies on the Internet. Find a mailing address and an email address and, if possible, find out the name of a specific person to send the ideas to; if you're unsure, phone up to clarify.
3. Contact the greeting card companies and find out if they accept ideas and if they have any contributor guidelines available. Some companies will rely on using their usual stable of contributors and may not want to receive unsolicited ideas. Others have guidelines available for contributors and actively accept ideas--although you may find that they have certain deadlines throughout the year for contributions and you'll need to meet these in order to have your ideas considered.
4. Organize and prepare your greeting card submissions and send them off. Never send original artwork--always send a copy. Clearly label everything you send and, in the case of artwork or cartoons, make a mock-up of the card to highlight how it could look. Jokes or greeting card messages should be written and clearly marked as "outside" and "inside", so it's easy to see how they would be used on the finished product.
5. Send artwork and cartoons by mail, and written submissions by email, but follow any specific instructions provided by the company in question. Failure to follow their way of working could result in your ideas never even being looked at. Include a stamped addressed envelope for a reply.
6. Brainstorm more ideas and send them to another company on your list. Remember, however, do not send the same material out to different companies at the same time-you can always resend it if it is rejected by one company.
