I brought a stack of writers’ business cards home from a huge conference recently. I need to make myself new ones, so I was looking through the pile with an eye to design/contents. Here are a few thoughts I had:
- Rounded corners are hot and contemporary. Love them! But…what’s next?
- Use striking imagery to stand out. (Acquire permission/rights.)
- Author pics: Hate the idea of my pic, BUT these helped me place people I had met but couldn’t remember.
- Solid color backgrounds with white text are hot right now and look great.
- Images of typewriters, notebooks, pens, and computers are overdone.
- Use both sides. Image on one side and info on the other works well.
- Minimal is great! Name, job title, website, and email address are all you need.
- Highlighting a new book is terrific, too, but you’ll have to update more frequently.
- Don’t put your home address on your business card. Just don’t.
- Keep your text big enough to be easily readable. Never go smaller than 8pt (preferably 10)!
- Make sure your text color contrasts strongly with the background it appears on.
- Leave your day job off. Editors don’t care that you’re a clown or yogi.
- Limit your fonts. More than 2 looks amateurish.
- Leave a bit of space where you can jot something as you hand your card over.
- An email addy that obviously goes to your day job or is something like beachbabe@aol.com does not make the right impression.
Here’s the biz card I’ve been using for more than a year. I have a new book coming out in spring, and I’m trying to decide whether to just update, redesign using the same basic elements, or completly overhaul…
Laura,
I love that image. It would be memorable to me. Thanks for the pointers.
Thanks, Liz:>)
Laura,
I love that image. It would be memorable to me. Thanks for the pointers.
Thanks, Liz:>)
Thanks for the tips, Laura.
Sure thing, Donna!
Thanks for the tips, Laura.
Sure thing, Donna!
Thanks for the tips! I’m going to have to address this sometime soon and you have covered this very well!
Biz cards have changed looks a lot in the past few years. There were some really beautiful ones (mostly illustrators’) at the conference. Really eye-catching!
Thanks for the tips! I’m going to have to address this sometime soon and you have covered this very well!
Biz cards have changed looks a lot in the past few years. There were some really beautiful ones (mostly illustrators’) at the conference. Really eye-catching!
Great advice! Your current card is cute!
Thanks, Tina!
Great advice! Your current card is cute!
Thanks, Tina!
So now I know why I get hardly any leads from my hotguy4U@aol.com email address.
Seriously though, great tips, Laura! Less is definitely more – as you said, just the basic info is all you need. In fact, for mine (which I also need to update) all I have is my website and phone # – everything else (blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is secondary and call all be accessed via the website, anyway!
Bwah-ha-ha! Yeah, that could be it:>) I’m thinking I might go with just name and website and skip book titles. But I’m not sure. I think you can get away with that on a REALLY slick, graphically powerful card. I’ll probably end up keeping three book titles, but maybe skip the subtitles and pub info. I don’t know; I’ve got to play around with it. But I think you’re completely right about not including stuff that already accessible via your site.
So now I know why I get hardly any leads from my hotguy4U@aol.com email address.
Seriously though, great tips, Laura! Less is definitely more – as you said, just the basic info is all you need. In fact, for mine (which I also need to update) all I have is my website and phone # – everything else (blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is secondary and call all be accessed via the website, anyway!
Bwah-ha-ha! Yeah, that could be it:>) I’m thinking I might go with just name and website and skip book titles. But I’m not sure. I think you can get away with that on a REALLY slick, graphically powerful card. I’ll probably end up keeping three book titles, but maybe skip the subtitles and pub info. I don’t know; I’ve got to play around with it. But I think you’re completely right about not including stuff that already accessible via your site.
Thanks for your insight about business cards. I need to update as well and these are great tips!
Thanks for your insight about business cards. I need to update as well and these are great tips!