Re: Asking for Author Credit In The Documentation?

["Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steven Oppenheimer" <Steven -at- OppenheimerCommunications -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 5:30 PM
Subject: Asking for Author Credit In The Documentation?


> has anyone ever negotiated a contract ahead of time
> where you obtained rights to credit, as part of the
> agreement to do documentation?
>

No.  Well, yes, actually.  My family's company once made room to mention
ourselves, as the writers/editors, in the frontmatter of a manual for a
small software startup.  It was no problem--the client liked our work, and
appreciated our desire to be recognized.

But in the mainstream, no. And I may as well say that I don't quite
understand why printed material is that way.

I mean, if you've ever sat through the credit at the end of a movie, you'll
notice that EVERYONE gets their name and role mentioned. I do know that this
says more about the unions than the studios--where the studios appear to be
larger-than-life monolithic masters of the spell-binding arts, the unions
appear to be more concerned with giving individual credit for a marvel that
is nothing more than the sum of its parts.

I do understand why a company that invests in advertising, logos, branding,
styles, and designs, would want to make the most of every opportunity
to consolidate their image as a monolithic entity, in the eyes and minds of
their customers. The companies that succeed in doing this can generate huge
revenues simply by affixing their trademarked logo to a product.  Forget
about affixing your name to their product.  It would be graffiti.

On the other hand, a major piece of software from a software giant will
sometimes have an explicit acknowledgement of the people who worked on it.
You might find it in the form of an easter egg, or a hyperlink in the About
screen (see Internet Explorer).  But this is Software as show business, I
think. They have worked on a famous product.

I knew a tech writer who got his name in the manual.  He worked at one of
the big software companies, where design proceeded according to standard
templates.  He was interested in book design, and somehow took on the design
work for manual he was writing.  The finished product listed him by name, in
print, in the manual, as the designer. With hindsight, I think he might have
simply done his own credits--this would have been possible, because that
company distributed much of the responsibility (and rewards) to the
individuals, and it played out in a strong tendency toward horizontal
management, without emphasis on top-down oversight of projects.  The staff
was quite young (lots of brash 20-something millionaire programmers), and
they were not (yet) the kind of 'damaged goods' that you find at the other
extreme, where strong top-down management metes out scarce, perfunctory
rewards to people who are invisible or sycophantic. (Sorry if that sounds
harsh, but I am talking about extremes).

Extrapolating a principal from this small set of observations, I think it is
much more thinkable to take credit for writing when you're writing for an
organization that is integrated in the horizontal style of management and
decision-making. Its not simply that you can do it and get away with it;
there's also a sort of "farmer's marketplace" atmosphere--everyone has put
themselves on the line, exposing themselves to the vicissitudes of product
development and production, and no one disputes the general right to be
identified with effort.  Those rights, in vertical organizations, reside on
the far side of the many ceilings.

Sorry I can't really answer directly with yes or no. Pennies make nickels,
that's my $.02.

HTH.

Ned Bedinger
Ed Wordsmith Technical Communications


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