You Can Write Greeting Cards (You Can Write)

Rating:
Summary: I am not pleased with it
Review: I have bought three books from Writer's Digest Books that explicitly introduces and teaches you to the world of writing greeting cards. The 1980 is old but has good tried and true concepts. The 1992 "How to Write and Sell Greeting Cards" by Molly Wigand which is fun to read, a super reference, lot's of applications and worksheets. (the best of the three by far) And this book that I'm reviewing is the latest, 1998, but not the greatest. I find it very hard to look up for things, not my reference book. The index is just one page long, so when looking for different occasions to write about, it takes too long and the help is not great. The book just introduces to the greeting card world, teaches a little about writing styles and 9 pages about the industry... period. Not much about writing for b-days, Xmas, Mother's day, etc. No workbooks, no good brainstorming advice. I couldn't find the writer helping me out organizing my ideas, developing them, archiving them. I'll have to read the book from cover to cover to just find one thing. On the other hand, the "How to write & sell greeting cards, bumper stickers, t-shirts and other fun stuff" by Molly Wingand is a marvelous book I enjoy having, referring and learning from.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing but the Best
Review: I read this one from cover to cover. It is full of information and style. If you are interested in writing for greeting cards or just interested it is a must!

Rating:
Summary: Nothing but the Best
Review: I read this one from cover to cover. It is full of information and style. If you are interested in writing for greeting cards or just interested it is a must!

Rating:
Summary: Terrifically thorough book on writing greeting cards!
Review: Karen Ann Moore has been a professional greeting card writer and editor for 20 years. She has worked for American Greetings Corporation, headed her own studio for greeting-card writing, and served as a Creative Director for Gibson Greetings, Inc. She holds a masters degree in education and is a frequent speaker at writing conferences. She has published over 2000 greeting cards in her career.

You Can Write Greeting Cards is a trade paperback and is well laid out and easy to read. The topics it covers are: (1) the greeting card industry of yesterday, today and tomorrow; (2) deciding if this kind of writing is for you; (3) how to develop great ideas so you can take them to market; (4) whether to write in rhyme or not; (5) how to write cards with a light, whimsical style; (6) today's approaches to humor and how to develop humorous card ideas; (7) hints on how to market your work; (8) exercises to develop your skills at writing greeting cards.

The author is very hopeful about the possibilities for work in the greeting card business. She states: "Greeting card publishers have a great need for creative input from talented writers...because their needs continue to change." The industry is very open to freelancers. The author states that "the best greeting cards are written by people with a variety of backgrounds and interests." You need to understand people more than you need a college degree. If you are naturally observant, intuitive, a good communicator, funny or clever, you've probably got what it takes to succeed at writing greeting cards.

Absolutely everything you need to know about this kind of writing is contained in this terrifically thorough book. If you or anyone you know has ever thought about this kind of writing, this book is a must. Highly recommended.