Credit for your written work?

[amy_waring]

I am relatively new to freelancing as a copywriter. I completed a job for a client to write an article on a complex technology topic. The article took me much longer than expected due to the complexity of research required. I put a lot of time and energy into it. I asked the client if they could send me a link when it was published so that I could include it in my portfolio. They said they would do this but didn't and then cancelled the contract for ongoing work. Later, I came across the article that I had written online. It was attributed to a totally different journalist whose profile stated that they were an expert journalist in the field. The article was totally the same as mine with a few minor changes in the order of contents. I asked the client how this had happened and why I had not been credited with my own work. They said that 'a byline was never discussed and wasn't part of the contract (as is typical of SEO content writing)'... but that 'I could still use the article as part of my portfolio'.  I was not aware at the point of taking on the contract that a completely different person would be falsly  credited with all my research on a complex topic but I am new to copywriting and the client seems sure that this is acceptable.  Is this plagiarism or if not, how can I include the article that I spent so many days on in my portolio when the photo and description of a male journalist and technology consultant is visible on the link to the article? I would appreciate any advice! 

[roberty1y · Accepted solution]

As far as I'm aware, when you do any work for a client here, they own the full rights to it unless you had a prior agreement that stipulated something different. I think the same applies to visual artwork and software.

[d_samuel_udokpok]

I completely understand this Amy. It's sad that the client didn't keep to their word. However, since there was no formal agreement between you and the client for attribution of the work during the contract process, the client will claim you were handsomely paid, and thus no attribution is required.

To give you the picture clearly, the publisher of the article with the attribution was the owner of the job and decided to contract the job to someone else, the person, in turn, contracted you to write the article. 

Whichever you want to look at this, it's like you being a secretary of a company, you're asked to draft a letter, typed, and printed it, your boss signed the letter with their name. The letter will be seen as coming from your boss and not you. The client will claim they paid you and thus no attribution to you is required. 

[melaniekhenson]

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David S wrote:

I completely understand this Amy. It's sad that the client didn't keep to their word. However, since there was no formal agreement between you and the client for attribution of the work during the contract process, the client will claim you were handsomely paid, and thus no attribution is required.

To give you the picture clearly, the publisher of the article with the attribution was the owner of the job and decided to contract the job to someone else, the person, in turn, contracted you to write the article. 

Whichever you want to look at this, it's like you being a secretary of a company, you're asked to draft a letter, typed, and printed it, your boss signed the letter with their name. The letter will be seen as coming from your boss and not you. The client will claim they paid you and thus no attribution to you is required. 

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It isn't that the freelancer was paid. It's that unless otherwise specified, the client owns the work once it's done.

[75f7010a]

Thank you!

[amy_waring]

Thank you so much for your reply and explanation. I was totally naive to this! 

[nhansen]

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David S wrote:

To give you the picture clearly, the publisher of the article with the attribution was the owner of the job and decided to contract the job to someone else, the person, in turn, contracted you to write the article. 

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That isn't the case at all from what she said. She said the client decided to publish it under another name, not that someone was sub-contracting the work to her.

[a_kuntsi]

As a writer myself, I am also pretty sure that the client owns the rights. 

BUT claiming that it is someone else's work is weird, to say the least. Not sure if that is ok.

Unless you are in agreement about ghostwriting. 

I have never gotten (or waited for) a credit but nor has anyone else claimed to be the writer of my work.

Putting that to your portfolio is pretty difficult as someone else's name is there. Anyone could claim that they wrote anything in that case...

[melaniekhenson]

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Anneli K wrote:

Putting that to your portfolio is pretty difficult as someone else's name is there. Anyone could claim that they wrote anything in that case...

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That's why it's always good to make sure you're published at least once in a while under your own name. I do this with a county newspaper, because obviously in that case, the author of the article is the author of the article. 

With your own work published under your own name, if it ever came down to this (I haven't had this happen, but you never know), you could show your published work against the work in question as a comparison for style, subject matter, etc.

But either way, even if one mostly ghostwrites (I do), it's best to keep your hat in the ring by grabbing some work that will include your byline.

[amy_waring]

Thank you for the great advice )

[amy_waring]

Thank you Anneli. Being new, I found it strange for a photoshopped character to be credited with someone else's work,  But I guess that's the way it works )

[tlbp]

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Amy W wrote:

Thank you Anneli. Being new, I found it strange for a photoshopped character to be credited with someone else's work,  But I guess that's the way it works )

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Soon you will look at every online article and think, "I wonder which freelancer toiling in obscurity wrote this?" 

[amy_waring]

That's exactly what happened! Thank you for your kind advice. 

[pgiambalvo]

Unless you signed some sort of NDA saying you wouldn't divulge that you wrote this, why not include it in your portfolio and label it as "Ghostwritten By Me," or something like that?

[tlbp]

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Anneli K wrote:

As a writer myself, I am also pretty sure that the client owns the rights. 

BUT claiming that it is someone else's work is weird, to say the least. Not sure if that is ok.

Unless you are in agreement about ghostwriting. 

I have never gotten (or waited for) a credit but nor has anyone else claimed to be the writer of my work.

Putting that to your portfolio is pretty difficult as someone else's name is there. Anyone could claim that they wrote anything in that case...

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This is why clients sometime request custom samples or want to speak with the freelancer before making a contract. They want to try to determine if the person claiming the work is actually capable of producing it. I don't advocate creating "test" or requested pieces to prove your credibility to prospective clients. Instead, publish a few pieces of like (or better) quality under your own name via LinkedIn, Medium or your website. This allows clients to verify that you can deliver at a level equal to the unverifiable pieces. 

[melaniekhenson]

I've had this happen with a couple of clients, but with the knowledge ahead of time that I wouldn't would be credited. It's true that unless a byline is disussed, the client owns the work.

In the case of my own clients, they had online "personas" created for the sites. They then used these personas as the "authors" of the blogs. It's not all that uncommon. In that case, it's an imaginary person, more or less. The persona (or the client) signs emails I write for him/her with his/her own name or company name, etc.  Could this be the "author"/writer you were seeing? A blog/site persona? Just a thought.

When people have other people write for them, it is often the client him/herself who is credited, directly or by assumption, with the work, so if that's what your client was doing, it would be pretty typical of ghostwriting.

[ericaandrews]

Sorry:  Unless you had a special written agreement with the Client before doing the work that was added as part of the UW Contract, the Client owns the work, which means they can also 'give' ownership to someone else (including a different author/journalist).  The 'default' settings of any UW contract are that the Client owns any work you produce unless you have a written agreement saying otherwise.

These 'optional' terms become part of any Upwork contract unless you and/or the client change them before starting the contract.

https://www.upwork.com/legal#optional-service-contract-terms

6.4 OWNERSHIP OF WORK PRODUCT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

"Upon Freelancer’s receipt of full payment from Client, the Work Product (except for any Background Technology), including without limitation all Intellectual Property Rights in the Work Product (except for any Background Technology), will be the sole and exclusive property of Client, and Client will be deemed to be the author thereof.  If Freelancer has any Intellectual Property Rights to the Work Product that are not owned by Client upon Freelancer’s receipt of payment from Client, Freelancer hereby automatically irrevocably assigns to Client all right, title and interest worldwide in and to such Intellectual Property Rights. Except as set forth above, Freelancer retains no rights to use, and will not challenge the validity of Client’s ownership in, such Intellectual Property Rights. Freelancer hereby waives any moral rights, rights of paternity, integrity, disclosure and withdrawal or inalienable rights under applicable law in and to the Work Product. If payment is made only for partial delivery of Work Product, the assignment described herein applies only to the portion of Work Product delivered and paid for."

[nhansen]

Amy-It really depends. I've written some articles ghostwritten, but some of them were outside my main area of expertise so I didn't care. I also currently write for a website that does give me bylines and an author's page and if that is what you are looking for, look at my profile for the completed job "Blog Writer for Egyptology, Classical Antiquities and Archaeology" and click through and see if he is currently offering any art history writing jobs in your particular area of expertise, because the client is looking for people like you with a master's in art history and writing skills.

[amy_waring]

Thank you very much!

[nhansen]

There's 2 things that need to be distinguished from one another-ownership and authorship. Yes, the client owns the work, but whether they credit you as the author is another matter that should be made clear from the outset to prevent any misunderstandings later. They can own the work and still credit you as the author.

There's a reason though that a client would prefer to credit your work to someone other than you, namely that person has more credibility regarding the topic you are writing on. Especially when it comes to things regarding finances and health, Google ranks works that are written by qualified experts more highly than those written by those who aren't experts. So if you wrote an article for instance about how to afford a mortgage, but you are an art historian, that's not going to rank as highly as it would if the byline was someone with a degree in finance.

[tlbp]

This is the nature of freelance writing. We are writing for  someone else. Occasionally a client will want to use your name but often they will not. Your content will be assigned, and reassigned, to whomever the client wishes.

Sometimes, if you agree to allow them to use your name, you'll be disappointed to find out later that the article has been altered and your byline still attached. There's a chance that a client may use your name without consulting with you first. (I believe this occurs rarely. It is a possibility to be aware of, though.)

If you want to absolutely sure of how the byline will be handled, you have to negotiate that aspect of the contract. I haven't experienced any issues with clients regarding the unauthorized use of my name. However, nearly all of my work is ghostwritten. 

IIRC, Upwork's standard contract requires confidentiality regarding the work you do for clients. That means claiming the work in your portfolio may not be permissible. As a practical matter, if you aren't publishing your portfolio online, I doubt if most clients care or care to investigate. 

All this to say, the freelance world has many unwritten rules and practices that most people just come to accept (both clients and freelancers). Adding to the complexity, those rules can vary by platform. Finally, some clients, particularly large organizations, have separate contracts that may require you to sign away more rights that any freelancer should be comfortable with. Look around for previous forum posts here and elsewhere and articles written by freelancers about contracts and negotiations. Try to familiarize yourself with all the potential issues that may arise, understanding that in most cases all goes smoothly and those issues won't arise. 

Finally,  keep the client's perspective in mind. Either they understand the work involved in what you are producing for them and will pay you well for and respect your effort--or they won't. You have to decide who you want to work with and how much effort you'll expend for the price you are being paid. 

As a fellow freelancer, I understand the impulse to want both the benefits of payment and a portfolio piece for your efforts but your clients won't care. Their interest is in receiving their deliverable. 

Some of my first  portfolio pieces were undelivered works for contracts gone bad or samples I wrote outside of time spent on paid works. Later, I added ghostwritten and credited work. When you research a piece for a client's work, think about how you can use that same research to create something else for your portfolio or another client. 😉

[nhansen]

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Tonya P wrote:

Sometimes, if you agree to allow them to use your name, you'll be disappointed to find out later that the article has been altered and your byline still attached. There's a chance that a client may use your name without consulting with you first. (I believe this occurs rarely. It is a possibility to be aware of, though.)

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I saw a job the other day where they were offering a good sum of money to simply write an outline for ebooks. They said all they needed was the outline, that they had writers who would actually write the works. But, here's the catch, the person writing the outline would be credited as the author of the books. Sounds like easy work, but who are the real authors? I decided not to apply because there was a good chance the end product would be awful and and I would be stuck with this awful product to my name.

[78ed38b8]

I have need a work

[132c246c]

Where my writing work