For those who do readings by email

I wonder, about how long and detailed are your email readings? Are they similar to the ones we do on exchanges here? Sometimes I think we take shortcuts in our readings because we know tarot, and I'm wondering how much you explain to your customers in emails. Do you go into great detail about the card? Or do you spend more time talking about your interpretation as it applies to their life? Or both? Assuming I ever do get a paying customer, I want them to feel they get their money's worth.

First of all, it really depends on how much you're charging. If you charge a lot, then the customer will expect more.
I find that most people, when looking for a reading, aren't looking for the explanation of symbols of the cards (which would be a nice bonus, but they probably think you're just trying to take up space if you go overboard with that.) I think the majority of my clients want to hear my interpretation on the cards and how they affect their situations.
Usually I have the feeling like customers feel like they got the money's worth based on the accuracy and fluidity of the reading, not so much on length. Maybe a little bit on length, but I've seen readers ramble on about "what they see" and then not providing enough interpretation and that's not worth it.
The second thing it depends on is how you communicate. Some people take three sentences to say the same thing as others, who only take one sentence. Neither of those two is necessarily good or bad, but it does affect the length of the reading.

I suppose I'm just looking for a benchmark or industry standard. I don't want to write a novel when they're expecting something short and sweet or vice versa. Or I suppose I could ask beforehand!

Carla said:

I wonder, about how long and detailed are your email readings? Are they similar to the ones we do on exchanges here?

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Er ... sort of - often much more detailed than the ones I do here. I find myself having to explain concepts that I'd expect people here to just "get".

Sometimes I think we take shortcuts in our readings because we know tarot, and I'm wondering how much you explain to your customers in emails. Do you go into great detail about the card? Or do you spend more time talking about your interpretation as it applies to their life? Or both?

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Both. I find clients are not just satisfied with the interpretation only - they like to know where it came from, how I got it. And that's fair enough.

Assuming I ever do get a paying customer, I want them to feel they get their money's worth.

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<smile> Indeed.

My readings range from 3/4 of a page to 1 and a half pages in length. I start out by listing what the position of this card is (For example past, present, or future), what the card is, and how it is interpreted. If I feel I can't write or word a clear enough entry on said card, I will describe it first how each part means something. If its an interactive method I'm using then I will always start by writing about how the artwork in each card interacts with one another.

I don't really know how I compare to others because I only do a few a week, but I charge a little and write a lot. Mainly because I enjoy doing it, but I haven't been doing them for a while!

But I usually write a lengthy paragraph to begin with telling them what I sensed about their energy - anything I picked up on empathically (is that even a word!?), anything I saw/heard/felt - you know the drill. Just a nice little intro to smooth your way into it or to clear up any loose ends that may not have been covered in the cards. From experience I can tell that they like to jump straight into it, so starting off with this kind of interpretation first has helped me in the past.

Then I do about 2 paragraphs per card. 1 paragraph describing various elements of the card, but only the ones I think that apply so various metaphors or symbols with a bit of interpretation. Then I do a chunky paragraph on what I think it means, it's relevance to their question and what not.

For me, I think that explaining how the cards look is important because a large majority of people who I've read for have been like 'this is my first reading, ever!', and obviously they're going to be lost the moment I start chatting about Major Arcanas and Minor Arcanas and Swords and Pentacles, haha. As long as you don't go into TOO much detail and start trying to teach them what it all means, you'll be fine.

HOWEVERRRR, you can easily avoid literally spelling out what the card looks by attaching photos of your cards? I used to do that, snap a photo of how the cards look like so they can see what their spread looks like and what not.

I have a feeling that once you get started on typing up a reading, you'll get plenty out of it, so don't stress or over think it.

|Amy|

The readings I have done for free for my friends all contain either a snapshot of the actual card layout, or scanned images of cards. Your way of writing sounds a lot like what I do, LibraX!

I have a good-quality headset now, and I've downloaded and registered some reasonable sound-management software. So far I've only used it for international skype conferences, but I'm thinking of making sound-files for faraway clients. That way, they get to hear me shuffle (so they know I'm not faking the order of the cards, and they hear the expression in my voice.