Today, I pop my holiday cards in the mail to the people I work with in the publishing industry. I started doing this a few years ago because it seemed a nice way to keep my name in front of some editors I worked with in the educational publishing industry. I could wish them happy holidays and implicitly let them know it was a relationship I wanted to continue. Now I have a couple of trade editors in the mix, too, which is nice, plus my agent, my critique group folks, etc.
Since I write poetry, it’s fun to use a poem on my card. I chose a photo card (at Snapfish) with a snowman theme, and I inserted an image that was actually a snowman poem I wrote last year (it’s in the pink square in this post) while participating in Robert’s Snow. I ordered 60 cards and had them about a week later.
I was wondering if other writers send out holiday cards, and, if so, do you put any writing on them? I thought different kinds of writers could be really creative in choosing a writing sample to feature on their cards…so it’s kind of like a mini-portfolio. Nonfiction writers could include a short piece or a bulleted list of fun facts that are holiday-related. Picture book writers could include a mini-story or vignette…something with that picture book feel. Novelists could include the opening paragraph of a novel. I don’t know. Maybe this is all totally ridiculous?
Do any of y’all do holiday cards? If so, have you sent them out yet? Even if you don’t want to send a ton of them, it might be nice to send a little holiday cheer to your favorite editors, who are surely facing tough times right now.