Breaking into the Spanish-Language Greeting Card Market

The Spanish-language greeting card market is a great way for bilingual and multicultural freelance writers to find a niche in the marketplace. There are plenty of people who speak only Spanish in the U.S. and who want to share their holidays and celebrations through greetings cards, but there is a true deficit in the market for people who are actually talented at writing Spanish-language greeting cards.

1- Learn how to write in "TV Spanish".

One of the main obstacles for writers in the Spanish-language greeting card market is that you cannot use slang because people from different Spanish-speaking countries have different versions of slang. A greeting card that might be taken wonderfully in Mexico might be offensive in Uruguay, and vice versa. This is why greeting card companies want to hire multicultural, bilingual writers; it reduces the possibility of offending someone who is shopping for cards.

2- Learn how to rhyme.

According to Hallmark representative Abby Sherman, Spanish-language greeting cards sell best when they include rhymes. This is why translations of English greeting cards do not sell well in the Spanish market, and also why fluent Spanish-speakers are required for this type of job. Rhymes are big sellers both in the U.S. and in Mexico, and you must be able to write greeting cards that include small poems that both rhyme and make sense.

3- Consider freelancing.

While some companies, such as Hallmark and American Greetings, do hire full-time Spanish-language greeting card writers, it appears that freelancers stand to make the most money. This is because Spanish greeting cards are currently something of an afterthought in the industry, and writers who write exclusively-Spanish cards are in high demand. The card companies are beginning to realize that Spanish-speaking customers should be a priority rather than a stepchild, which means freelancers can easily sell their cards for a good price rather than earning a straight salary.

4- Learn Spanish Grammar

Even if you are a native Spanish speaker, you must also be a good writer to survive in the Spanish-language greeting card market. One of the problems observed by Sherman is that many of the Spanish cards that hit the market are full of basic grammatical errors that make them unattractive to consumers. If you're going to make a living in this industry, you must be able to write well without errors.

5- Learn Art Selection

Another untapped market in the Spanish-language greeting card industry is art selection, which is the graphic detail that accompanies the words in greeting cards. According to Sherman, most of the major card companies believe that Spanish cards should be gaudy with bright colors and too much motion. These cards are not the best sellers. If you know how to match art with words, you stand to be even more valuable to this market.