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Author Bylines for White Papers? ASK MIKE

By Michael Stelzner

So you work you buns off to produce a white paper for your company or your client and…

They will not let you put your name on the paper. What gives?? How do you handle this?

This very question comes from Carrie:

I recently wrote my first white paper which went well, it was accepted with no revisions and is being posted shortly. However, I am not getting a byline, as the person I did it for says it is not in their format.

I don’t understand the rationale for this. Also, this is not so good for me in terms of visibility, as I would like to get more assignments from this, so the best I can do is work around it and post the link on my own newsletter and maybe do a press release. I could not find any info on this, but I did find many white papers online that not only had bylines but extended bios as well!

Any thoughts on this? Thanks, Carrie

Carrie, you are not going to like my answer.

With white papers, bylines are rare.

When they are written by freelancers for companies, the freelancer usually never gets a byline.

I have written over 100 and have not got one.

So do not despair!

Realize you are a gun for hire to make your client look good, not make you look good.

The best thing you can do is include the sample paper among your portfolio of work.

I would advise against doing a press release on a white paper you did for another company without their permission.

Realize that white paper writing is a “work for hire” and the company, not you, owns the rights to what you produced. This is different than writing articles.

Those white papers you find online with authors and bios are either self-promotional pieces or are authored by industry experts (yet might be written by ghost writers).

Hope this helps.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 5:04 am and is filed under Freelance Writing, Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • I have never heard of a writer getting (or even asking for) a by-line for a white paper. Would you ask for a by-line on a brochure or a press release? Anytime you are writing business communications, it is safe to think of yourself as a ghostwriter for the company. They bought it, they own it, they can do what they want with it. Most of my white papers end up saying "By Joe Important, VP of Important Stuff" which makes me feel a little important too ; ) and makes for a great sample; it is an implied endorsement of the quality of your work.
  • Len, I've piped up on this issue already, but I will note that for many of the white papers I work on, the person we list as the author is the person who we want potential leads to contact. Accordingly, this is often the vice president or director of a certain region or functional area of the company I'm writing for. Certainly not me.

    If it helps, you can also take the perspective that what you're writing is not really your intellectual property -- it's your clients. For example, I just wrote a very complicated paper on economic diversification in the Middle East region. Yes, I figured out the best way to explain the key points that the authors wanted to convey. But were they my key points? Based on my research? No. I served only as the messenger, if you will, for the researchers' conclusions and recommendations. It's their research, their expertise that I'm selling. That means they get the byline.
  • Short answer - DO not pass it up. Watch for a post on this topic.
  • Len Kim
    Mike, I am embarking on my first assignment as a freelance writer and the company I am working with would like to put the name of one of their directors as the author of the white paper. Is that a reasonable request?

    My gut response is to decline. I do not expect to have a byline but neither do I want my work to be passed off as someone else's, even though they are briefing me thoroughly and providing support material.
  • All the papers I write show the names of the company's subject matter experts -- not my name. -- Samantha
  • Hi Dianna;

    I fully agree.

    Mike
  • Mike,

    Building a portfolio of writing samples is key to building a copywriting business. I have prospective clients ask me all the time for samples. In the old days (pre-Internet) I used to spend big dollars to make photocopies and snail mail pieces. And, I used to lug around a huge portfolio.

    Now I just email links or PDFs. I also add samples to the portfolio page of my site.

    Most everyone who is looking to hire a B2B copywriter knows that work samples don't come with bylines.
  • Mike:

    Your advice to not write a press release about a White Paper you wrote for a client seems like such a no-brainer. But as a publicity expert, I get the same question from my readers and I give them the same answer you did above.

    That said, I encourage people, as you most likely do, to write press releases about their own White Papers. Yet so many people cannot write a simple press release. Or they fail to understand that we don't write press releases only for the media.

    I’m offering a free email course called "89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases."

    I explain why we should also write press releases for consumers who can find the releases online, click through to our websites and enter our sales cycle, even if journalists don’t think our release is worthy of attention.

    The course includes several terrific press release samples as well as "before" and "after" makeovers.

    You can sign up for the free tutorial at http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm

    It's a very long tutorial but please stick with it. By the time you're done, it will be like earning a master's degree in writing and distributing press releases. And you'll know more about this topic than many PR people.
  • Hi Ed;

    Good point!

    There are exceptions.

    If you are Steve Jobs or perhaps some other high profile figure, it might add credibility to have your name on the paper for your company.

    Mike
  • If a white paper is meant to represent the perspective of a company, it should obviously look like it represents the entirely company's philosophy on an issue rather than the opinions of one person.
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