Hallmark's Watch What You Say Contest

Have a funny card idea that you think Hallmark would publish?  Enter it in their Watch What You Say Contest, between today and November 20th.  The winning card will be a "funny birthday card that can be sent to anyone," and you can enter up to three card ideas.  There's no fee to enter, but there is one catch: you can't use the words OLD, SPECIAL, or PARTY anywhere in the card.

Winning cards will be announced later in November.  Contest winners will receive $250, with the potential of earning $250 more.

JQ Greetings

JQ Greetings seeks both card ideas and artwork.  Payment is not specified; nor is response time.  But you can submit by mail or email -- just be sure to include all of your contact information.

Industry organizations

There are many greeting card trade organizations around the world, designed to bring member companies together and work to help all of them.  As a greeting card writer, these organizations may be able to provide you with addresses or phone numbers of more companies that you can submit to.  Most greeting card companies don't post their guidelines online, so if there is a company you like that you'd want to submit ideas to, you may be able to find their contact info by looking through the member directory of one of these organizations.

- Greeting Card Association (United States)
- Greeting Card Association (United Kingdom)
- Australian Greeting Card Association (Australia)
- AVG (Germany)

Caddylak Graffix

Caddylak Graffix publishes greeting cards and will sometimes buy freelance submissions.  They don't respond unless they plan to purchase something, so if you don't hear back within 2-3 months, you can assume your submission wasn't accepted.  They accept email and snail mail submissions, and payment for ideas consists of $25, your name credited on the back of the greeting card, and 25 copies of the card.
Caddylak also produces T-shirts with funny slogans.  Their guidelines for cards and T-shirts can both be found on the same page.  Payment for T-shirts is $25 plus one shirt.

Designer Greetings

While they may not have very specific submission guidelines, Designer Greetings is at the very least another market to send your work to.  They make traditional and humorous cards, and only accept submissions via snail mail.  You can browse through their catalog online to get an idea of what sort of cards they publish.  (Click on the Products tab along the top of the page and then choose a category from the sidebar on the left side.)

P.S. Greetings

P.S. Greetings (a division of Fantus Paper Products) publishes greeting cards and note cards.  Most of what they use is "traditional design work."  They pay a one-time fee for acquisition of exclusive rights, and the amount paid varies.  Submit by snail mail and include an SASE.  Typical response time is a month or so.

Threadless Favorite Tee Contest

Threadless is holding an online contest now through October 31st for people to submit designs of what their favorite tee shirt would look like.  (No brand names or logos.)  The winner will be awarded $10,000.  Each person can submit up to 3 designs for this contest.

Threadless

Threadless is an online community that produces and sells tee shirts.  They accept slogan and design ideas from anyone, you just have to use their templates and follow the guidelines when submitting.  Once you submit a tee shirt idea, it will be rated by the Threadless community.  If it ends up being made into a shirt, you'll get $2,000 and a $500 Threadless gift certificate, and the opportunity to make even more money if your design is reprinted.

Kalan LP's novelty line

In addition to producing greeting cards, Kalan also makes novelty items like magnets, bumper stickers, and shot glasses.  Kalan is open year-round to one-liners and slogans for these products, and submissions are reviewed at certain intervals.  Payment for one-liners is $75.  (If you have a Facebook account, click on the link on Kalan's page to see their current guidelines and any updates they may have posted.)

Novo Card Publishers

Novo Card Publishers uses greeting cards for many different occasions.  They are open to a wide style of cards, but recommend that you avoid sending in ideas that focus on current fads or a too-specific slice of society (be it cultural, social, or otherwise).  They also suggest avoiding rude or obscene verse or prose.  Payment rates are not specified.

In addition to accepting individual card ideas, Novo will also consider ideas for whole lines of humorous greeting cards.  Check out the section titled "Humorous Card Lines."

Oatmeal Studios

Oatmeal Studios wants funny greeting card ideas.  They won't publish anything that's too mean or too specific, so think light-hearted and think general.  You can submit by snail mail, on index cards, or by email if you request their email formatting guidelines.  They want greeting cards for a number of occasions, including birthdays, retirement, get well, and anniversary.  The website doesn't list their payment rates, but it's been said by various writers that they pay $50-75 for accepted ideas.

Duck and Cover

Duck and Cover Productions is a company that produces novelty items like buttons and stickers.  They don't have a website, but you can find a brief description of their guidelines in this WritersWeekly.com article by Wendy Dager.  They pay $40 per idea (potentially more, once you've established yourself with them) and accept email submissions.

Ephemera

Ephemera is a company that makes novelty stickers, buttons, and magnets.  They buy slogans to put on those items, and they pay $50 for each slogan.  If you've got some funny one-liners about politics, religion, or anything else on their list, email them in using the online form.  You'll typically get a response within one to five months, but if they like your idea it may take longer to go through the whole process.

Paper Rose

Paper Rose is a UK-based greeting card company.  Their website doesn't specify payments, but they do respond within 21 days, which is very fast.  You can submit by mail (overseas if you don't live in the UK) or by email.  Check out their current selection to see what kind of cards they sell.  (Click on either Everyday Range or Seasonal Range on the left side of the page.)

Kalan

Kalan used to take submissions through their SubmitFunnyStuff.com website, but that site is dead now.  If you try to go to it, you'll be taken to Kalan's new home on Facebook.  On their page you can find updates and news, and you can see their full guidelines by clicking on the Info tab.  They are still the same company -- still paying $100 per greeting card idea -- just with a new page.  Submissions are taken by email now, and the company encourages writers who have submitted ideas through the SubmitFunnyStuff site to resubmit those ideas through email.

Kalan is currently looking for Valentine's Day and birthday submissions.

Blue Mountain Arts seasonal deadlines

Don't be fooled by their guidelines page... Blue Mountain Arts' upcoming deadlines are closer than you think.  The deadline for Easter submissions is November 8th, and the deadline for Mother's Day submissions is on December 13th.  Make sure you email or mail your verse in before those dates for a shot at BMA's $50 or $300 payments.

Welcome

This blog is kind of an experiment right now, to see if anyone comes along.  If people stop by then the blog will keep growing, and I'll post upcoming publisher submission deadlines, links to guidelines, and other relevant information such as industry contests or news.  I'll probably start a permanent sidebar gadget with links to guidelines, which will grow as the blog grows and as I get the time.

Feel free to leave a comment!