Bylines

[cjemery]

Upwork staff - can you please somehow communicate to clients that they should be clear about whether a job is a ghostwriting job or not BEFORE contracts are initiated?

I have a prospect right now who is being very clear and communicative on everything except whether or not he wants to use my byline. I don't know how many different ways to ask him if he wants to put my name on these blogs.

It would be helpful if clients specified whether or not writing jobs were ghostwriting or not up front. It's a complicated issue, but maybe it could be simplified by them just checking some box when they create their job post...?

I appreciate your time as always!

[prestonhunter]

It really isn't a client's responsibility to make this clear.

By default, when a client pays a freelancer to do a writing job, the result is that ALL rights belong to the client.

So from a client's perspective, what's wrong with that? A client can give credit to a writer, or not, as she pleases.

If a freelancer wants any say in this, then he needs to make this clear before the client and freelancer agree to a contract.

As for checking boxes... there are no boxes to check to indicate whether or not a writing job will be a "ghost writing" job or not. Because Upwork is not a writing website. It is a freelance remote work site. Writing is one sliver of the overall picture here. It is not practical for Upwork to customize the client-side job-posting interface to incorporate specific questions for every possible job niche.

[cjemery]

Maybe "box-checking" is a few steps too far then. I also had in mind maybe just some friendly messaging up front, perhaps encouraging clients to be more clear about their intentions up front.

[tlsanders]

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@Preston H wrote:

So from a client's perspective, what's wrong with that? A client can give credit to a writer, or not, as she pleases.

Strongly disagree. When I enter into a ghostwriting contract, I'm not renting my credentials to the client. 

If a freelancer wants any say in this, then he needs to make this clear before the client and freelancer agree to a contract.

This I agree with. And, I'm puzzled by the issues Colyn is encountering. I have been writing on a freelance basis across many industries for nearly 30 years and I literally can't recall ever having encountered any confusion regarding attribution.

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[cjemery]

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@Tiffany S wrote:

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I'm puzzled by the issues Colyn is encountering. I have been writing on a freelance basis across many industries for nearly 30 years and I literally can't recall ever having encountered any confusion regarding attribution.

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Tiffany,

I asked the client if it was a ghostwriting job, but also asked other questions. He answered the other questions, but for some reason ignored the ghostwriting issue. I followed up about it, haven't heard back. It seemed like a great project and he seemed genuinely interested otherwise.

In my mere 2.5 years of freelance writing I haven't had too many issues with this either. But it has come up a couple times, and it seems like something that could be addressed in some creative way (maybe add "ghostwriting" in Skills Required if it isn't already available) by the Upwork team. Then again, I don't want to suggest any features that would make the hiring process more difficult or tedious.

Either way, it's no big deal this time around. Thanks for the responses as always.

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[tlsanders]

Possibly you should phrase your question differently. Not all clients have a clear understanding of what constitutes ghostwriting. I'm guessing, but I wonder whether you might be able to solve this problem simply by asking "Will you be using my byline on this piece, or will it be attributed to someone in your organization?"

[cjemery]

Yeah, I was working on re-phrasing the question again when I just gave up and came to the forums. Doesn't really matter at this point, client is non-responsive now.