When Does a White Paper Writer Get a Byline?

Posted on by Sallie Goetsch

If you read many white papers—and you certainly should be if you’re thinking about writing them—you’ll notice that some of them give the name of the author and some only the name of the sponsoring company, or possibly the research firm used to gather the data. So you might be wondering what determines whether a white paper author gets a byline. Is it a standard part of the contract negotiation, the way it is for books? Is there such a thing as an “As told to” white paper?

Not exactly.

If a company hires you to write a white paper, chances are your name won’t appear anywhere on that document, and neither will anyone else’s—except possibly that of the sales manager the reader is supposed to contact. Michael Stelzner, author of Writing White Papers, says on his blog that he’s written more than 100 white papers and never once been given a byline. That’s probably why he never mentions the issue in his book.

And it’s not just Stelzner’s book, either. You can find plenty of guides on how to write and design a good white paper, but I have yet to see one that mentions anything about author bylines, even though the standard white paper format ends with a “company information” section.

White paper writing isn’t usually ghostwriting in the sense that you’re writing in the voice of a specific individual, but it’s almost always writing where you don’t get attribution. There are only two instances I can think of where you’ll get a byline for a white paper you write.

You’re the Client

That’s right: if you’re a consultant or a business owner and you write a white paper to market your own company, you should put your name on it. If I were to write a white paper about ghostwriting (for this business) or podcasting (for the Podcast Asylum), I would certainly put my name on it. If you find yourself helping a sole proprietor with a white paper, his or her name will go on it, and you really will be ghostwriting, even though a traditional white paper has much less of a personal “voice” to it than a book does.

You’re An Industry Expert

So why would a client hire you to write a white paper for their company and then put your name alongside theirs? Because you’ve written so much about the field that your name adds credibility to the white paper’s conclusions. Unfortunately for the professional white paper writer, it’s journalists who are most likely to fall into this category. Even though you may be an expert after writing a few dozen white papers, that won’t help your client’s marketing if their prospective buyers have never heard of you.

On the other hand, there are many industry experts who are not writers, so you might get hired to improve the readability of what they produce. But in that case the byline will be theirs, even if you get part of the fee.

If you do want that byline, don’t be shy about demonstrating your expertise. But remember that it takes time to develop a relationship as a thought leader, and it doesn’t necessarily pay very well. If you can make as good a living from white papers as Michael Stelzner does, why worry about attribution?

What Does a Ghostwriter Do?

Posted on by Sallie Goetsch

Asked by Adam Fields on LinkedIn, August 9, 2009.

Real ghostwriting, as opposed to what self-publishing guru Dan Poynter calls “contract writing,” involves writing in another person’s “voice.”

To explain the distinction, contract writing is “Go write me an article/blog post/white paper on topic X, and give it to me when you’re finished.”

Ghostwriting means I sit down with the client and get to know him or her, the way s/he speaks and thinks, what really matters to him or her, why s/he wants to write a book, etc. Then I use materials such as recordings of the client’s speaking engagements, interviews, notes and other written materials the client has (from e-mail messages and blog posts to short articles), to help me build up the book.

Then we pass the manuscript back and forth to make corrections for accuracy of style, tone, fact, and grammar, and finally we have a book that’s a joint effort. The client’s name absolutely belongs on this book: it’s his or her ideas and expertise that the book contains.

My name could go on the book, or not. I certainly appreciate having an acknowledgment. But I get paid for the work I’ve done, and the author and publisher might not if the book doesn’t earn out its initial investment. The obscurity is worth it.

There’s More than One Way to Write a Book

Posted on by Sallie Goetsch

There’s more than one way to write a book—or anything else, for that matter.

The old joke about writing is that it’s really very easy: you just sit down at a keyboard (or in front of a blank sheet of paper, if you’re the old-fashioned type) and open a vein. But even if you’d rather slash your wrists than sit down at that keyboard, writing doesn’t have to be painful.

It doesn’t even have to be lonely. A room of your own and a source of income may be prerequisites to writing, but every book is a collaborative effort, involving not just the writer but editors, proofreaders, designers, printers, and distributors.

Those are the two most important things to know if you want to write a book: it doesn’t have to hurt, and you don’t have to do it all by yourself. In fact, if you work with a ghostwriter or a contract writer, you may not have to do any of the writing at all.

That doesn’t mean you won’t be doing any work, though. Your job, as the author, is to create the concept and to make sure that the end result is in line with your vision, just as if you were directing a movie or a play. If it’s going to be your book, you have to be involved, and you have the final say.

A Ghostwriter writes with you. Your “ghost” translates your vision into words while preserving your “voice” or personality. That means the ghostwriter has to get to know you very well. Authors talk about ghostwriters “channelling” their books, but what a ghostwriter really does to get inside your head is interview you (and frequently your friends, family, clients, and competitors) and study your work. To carry our film analogy a little further, a ghostwriter is like an actor getting into character—and you are the character. You are the expert.

A Contract Writer is someone who writes for you. Working with a contract writer is like assigning a story to a newspaper reporter: you provide the subject matter, length, and other guidelines, and the writer brings you a finished product. You don’t have to be an expert in the subject. Contract writers are sometimes subject experts and always good researchers. If you need website or newsletter content or other forms of copywriting, you want a contract writer.

You don’t need to worry as much about compatibility with a contract writer as with a ghostwriter, but you definitely want someone who can stick to deadlines.

The line between contract writing and ghostwriting is not always clear cut. Many freelance writers do both. Even if you send a contract writer out to do the initial research and writing on her own, you may want to collaborate on a second draft in order to get the “voice” right. In some cases you won’t need—or even want—the book or article to sound like you, and the writing may not be attributed to anyone at all.

A Developmental Editor arranges your material for the most effective presentation, like an architect creating a blueprint for your book. The best time to hire a developmental editor is after you collect your source material and make an outline, but before you sit down and start grinding out pages, but you can bring one in at any point in the process. It’s usually easier to build from scratch than to remodel, though, so if you already know that you want help with ordering your material and deciding what to put in and what to keep out, don’t wait.

A Book Doctor takes your manuscript and reworks it to create a finished product that agents and publishers know they can sell. Book doctoring is very similar to developmental editing, but an author rarely calls the book doctor until well into the writing process.

If you’ve run up against a wall in your writing or tried to sell a manuscript without success, you might want to ask for a house call.

Because even major publishing houses have cut back on their staff, you can’t count on having editorial services provided for you. If you’ve already sold your book, check with your publisher so you can be sure which services they provide. It can be well worth spending some of your advance on getting help.

And remember: it doesn’t have to hurt, and you don’t have to do it alone.

© 2005 Sallie Goetsch