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The Business Card Book: What Your Business Card Reveals
About You... and How to Fix It
Dr. Lynella Grant
500 pages Price $17.95
Review by Betty Winslow, staff writer for
Absolute Write
A typical business card is 2” X 3 1/2”. Small, right? So, who would’ve
thought that anyone could think of enough to say about them to fill a
500-page book? Dr. Lynella Grant did, and even she says, right in the
book’s beginning, “Clearly, this book contains more than you ever
thought you wanted to know about business cards,” while the back of
the book proclaims, “The only book on business cards you’ll ever need!”
Well, yeah. And when I first laid eyes on it, I groaned. 500 pages about
a subject that only slightly interested me? What had I done to deserve
this? It surprised me, though—it was actually pretty interesting!
Business cards. There’s a lot to say about them. Who knew?
This book covers everything you’d expect it to, from the visible and
invisible messages a business card gives off (its “body language”),
to graphics and font types that make a card stand out, to how to
make your card into a successful silent ambassador for your business
(because, as Grant says several times, “Your business card is the
handshake you leave behind!”).
However, that doesn’t fill 500 pages. There’s more. Lots more,
including stuff you probably didn’t realize you needed to know: How
to work successfully with designers and printers. How to use your
card in networking, sales, and trade shows, and organize and follow
up on the cards you receive. How to use your cards internationally,
while avoiding blunders and pitfalls caused by cultural differences.
Grant even goes into the history of business cards and introduces the
reader to both the Business Card Museum (yes, really), in Erdenheim,
Pennsylvania, and the Business Card Archives, home of a collection
of 50,000,000 business cards, located in Fairfield, Iowa. (Yes, you
read that correctly - a 5, followed by 7 zeros. Seven!!)
An interesting side note: Many of the cards in the aforementioned
archives came from the overwhelming response to a famous urban
legend,the Craig Shergold story (you know, the little English boy
who hascancer and is collecting greeting cards? Or postcards? Or
businesscards?). Some of the business cards that were sent to
Craig by well-meaning victims of this story via the Children’s Wish
and Make-a-Wish Foundations (both involved against their will in
the ever-spreading legend) eventually got sent to Iowa, to the
archives. They got two shipments—once—and there are so many
boxes of cards there now that they can’t find time to catalogue
them all! It’s over now. Really. But still, cards continue to pour
into the post office near where Craig is from and into both
foundations, even today.
So, listen up, people—for the sake of both foundations, the U.S. and
English postal services, and world resources in general, please help
put a stop to this story. Craig Shergold is grown up now. He’s fine,
honest. And he doesn’t want anyone to send him anything else. If
you absolutely must send something anyway to either foundation
because of him, send money. Money, they can use. Cards, gifts,
and so on, not so much. Stop!!
Now, back to business—er, business cards. As we (finally) reach the
end of this book, we find that even the back-of-the-book stuff is
interesting. Want to know where you can have an offbeat card made up?
Holographic? Outsized? Made out of metal? Talking? Printed in Braille?
There are companies listed that can help you out. Want to have Dr. Grant
look your card over and diagnose the problem areas? Go to the
Business Card Clinic
There’s also a Quick Reference Guide to help you find exactly what
you’re looking for, an appendix that explains the difference between an
employee and an independent contractor, and one that shows you a
sample standard form of agreement for graphic design services. There
are end notes. A glossary. An index. Trust me, people, if you’ve gotten
this far and you still have a question about business cards that this
book doesn’t answer, you don’t need to know. Either that, or the
answer doesn’t exist.
Betty Winslow is a staff writer for Absolute Write and moderates one
of the BBs. Her bio is at http://www.absolutewrite.com/site/betty.htm
and interested readers can contact her at freelancer@wcnet.org
More about the book and Table of Contents
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