The bards behind the cards

After just a few hours of instruction, Ms. Glunt says she's equipped to make a card for the chorus during this holiday season, and may even submit ideas to a card company, "to see if I have a knack for it."

Companies that accept freelance submissions generally offer $20 to $400 for each one they buy.

At a place like Hallmark, on the other hand, all the cards are created in-house. Jobs are competitive, but there's no predictable path into the field, says Dorothy Colgan, writing-studio director for the card giant in Kansas City, Mo. In the past year, Hallmark has hired a teacher, an entrepreneur, an actress, a nurse, a lawyer, and a salesperson from a card shop.

Applicants fill out a portfolio with "exercises to see what aptitude they have for fresh, original, crafted work that's emotionally driven," Ms. Colgan says. Once writers join the staff, they train for a month and work with a mentor as long as needed.

Those who love creating cards for family and friends sometimes find themselves wondering if that's a good-enough credential to delve into it as a business, says Sandra Miller-Louden, a card- writing teacher in Pittsburgh. She finds these people often do make the best card writers.

Ms. Miller-Louden was home with young children when she made her own early attempts at selling verses, and says she felt totally isolated.

"There was no Internet, and only one book on the subject, which was old and dealt mostly with rhyme." But the editor who saw her first batch of submissions in 1986 encouraged her to keep at it.

A few years later, she had piled up enough rejections, sales, and insights to start offering six-week classes at the Community College of Allegheny County. For the past three years, she's also overseen a self-paced Internet course at WritersCollege.com.

Miller-Louden's own cards have brightened up everything from Christmas and Hanukkah to newer occasions like Nurses' Day. "I encourage students to expand their thinking and read all they can about specific holidays, and go ahead and tackle it in that common ground that unites us all," she says.

She also expands their ideas about the types of objects their writing could end up on. About 30 percent of her sales are verses for "auxiliary products" like T-shirts, calendars, mugs, plaques - even Post-it notes. As for electronic cards, there aren't yet a lot of freelance opportunities, says See, who has a contract with Bluemountain.com.

Credit on the back of a card is "one of the perks you can and should try for," Miller-Louden tells her writing students.

Even when their names appear, though, writers really serve as an invisible link.

When people receive cards, she explains, "No one says, 'Oh, look what this person wrote.'... It's, 'Look what [my friend] sent to me.' "

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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