Re: Credits in books

[Anne Weiler <annew -at- CHANCERY -dot- COM>]

In article <Pine -dot- SOL -dot- 3 -dot- 91 -dot- 960917102048 -dot- 10524B-100000 -at- memco -dot- co -dot- il>, "Mark
L. Levinson" <mark -at- memco -dot- co -dot- il> wrote:

> A traditional way to print the cover designer's credit would be
> a line of small type along one of the edges of the cover, much
> the way you may see an ad agency's name printed in a magazine ad.

> The issue of crediting writers and artists in a corporate
> environment can get sticky, though, as people leave and arrive
> and collaborate and as they revise one another's work.  One
> company I worked for was advised by its lawyers to stop
> printing such credits.

What were the lawyers' reasons? We currently put the contributors (writers
and editor) names on the copyright page of our manuals. It's nice for the
writers to have something to show for their work. Also, it keeps people
who didn't work on a project from (heaven forbid) trying to pass off
someone else's work as their own. However, when we entered an STC
publications competition, one of the judges comments was that it's
dangerous to put your name inside the manual.

Any comments or experiences? I've always thought that big companies didn't
do it to maintain the corporate look and feel--"everything looks the same,
it doesn't matter who wrote it." Personally I find it really helpful when
a manual has the authors' names on it. It's handy to be able to go to
upper management, and show them the number of writers other companies use.
It helps my case when I'm arguing for more resources.

Anne

--
Anne Weiler (annew -at- chancery -dot- com)
Media Development
Chancery Software