Should I attempt to get paid for this? If so, how?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last week, the VP of my department attended a major industry conference at which she was scheduled to give a few presentations. The presentation software we used – a package that works in conjunction with PowerPoint to increase flexibility and add features – is relatively new, and nobody in the company had any experience with it. Thus, as department Tech Dude, I was given two days to figure out how to work the software, apply it to our presentations, and give my boss a crash course.

Long story short, I ended up tossing their 100-page manual aside and compiling a two-page “cheat sheet” based on actually using the damned thing. My boss took it to the conference, where senior reps from the presentation-software company were on hand to provide support (and, of course, to pimp their product if the presentations impressed). They got ahold of my cheat sheet, which apparently had been passed around among the presenters, and decided they liked it.

So, today, they called me. The lady I spoke with heaped praise upon my little document and requested that I send it to her, so that they can distribute it as a guide at future events. I was all set to comply, when my boss suggested that perhaps I ought to be compensated for this, as they most likely paid the person who wrote the nigh-incomprehensible guide they’re currently using. This leads me to my question.

Should I try to get paid for this? To my mind, all I did was figure out how to use their software under optimal and one-to-two-levels-removed-from-optimal conditions, and write it down. Seriously, it’s two pages; it hardly seems like a big deal, and it never would have occurred to me to ask for money. On the other hand, the software company does seem pretty enthusiastic about it, and hey, I’ll certainly take money. Also, if I decide it can’t hurt to ask, how should I go about it?

I figure strangers on the internet will have advice as good as anybody I know, so have at it. Thanks!

2

Ask for $1 and full credit. The full credit will be invaluable to you in your career and the small fee will make them happy, and still allow you to claim you were paid for it.

3

Asking for full credit: smart! I’d ask for more money, though, and reserve the $1 as a backup bargaining position. How long did it take the OP to create it? Was that creation aready on the boss’s dime?

4

Not a bad idea, DrDeth. Paid tech writing is paid tech writing, right? :smiley:

5

There’s that old story about the engineer who charged $10,000 to fix a machine: $1 for kicking it and $9,999 for knowing where to kick.

As Sunspace says, you spent time on it, yes? And the software people are likely to use it to help their company profit, yes?

Credit and payment (not nominal) are called for here, IMHO.

6

Sunspace: actually creating the document took me maybe an hour. If we include the time spent poking around with the software to learn the stuff included in the document, call it about five hours total. My boss paid me to learn the software, apply it to our presenatations, and teach it to her. The document was written at home on my own time because their manual pissed me off and I didn’t want her going to the conference with it.

7

Um…how about no?

You are already being paid by your employer. Writing a two page cheat sheet is hardly something I would consider extraordinary and worthy of special payment.

Doing things like that get you noticed as someone who does more than simply sitting around waiting to be told what to do. Unltimately your payment should come in the form of more responsibility, raises and promotions.

8

Since your company paid you to do the work, shouldn’t the company rather than you be getting paid? Certainly, though, you should get the credit. I would beware asking for too much money for yourself: if you charge them a full professional rate, you assume professional responsibility. And you may just piss them off.

How about a few extra licenses of the software for the company and some marketting stuff - mug / pen / whatever - for you?

9

Yeah but he did the cheat sheet on his own time and it’s someone else (who did not pay him to write it) that is going to be using it to their benefit and profit. Had he done everything on his boss’s dime - AND the boss had not been the one to suggest compensation AND he worked for the company wanting to use the cheat sheet, then no.

Since you did it in your own time then compensation and credit is due, I say.

10

It was the OP’s boss who suggested that he get paid.

11

Well, lunch is over; back to work. I have until tomorrow to figure out what to do about this, though I’ll probably just end up putting my name on it and asking them to leave it there – that’s certainly not asking too much for myself, and it ought to be enough to keep my boss from deciding I’m too passive. If anyone else has any ideas, keep 'em coming.

Oh…I think most people are getting this, but just to be clear, my boss (my employer) is suggesting that I ask for money from the software company (NOT my employer) for something which they want to use, and which my employer did not originally pay me to write. Of course, that something is two pages long, which I feel detracts somewhat from the overall importance of the situation, but others disagree.

12

You wrote it on your own time? Definitely ask for compensation if they want to use it. They’ll make money off it; why shouldn’t you? You made a sale!

And put your own copyright on it. Even if you release it to other users under one of the Creative Commons licenses, you can still charge for commercial use, including if they want to incorporate parts of it into their own manuals.

13

DON’T discount the time you spent learning the software. It’s called research, and for a writing task, it’s eminently billable.

14

Easiest way? Ask them if they’re willing to offer you any sort of compensation for the time you spent putting it together. Especially since it was your own time you spent on it. Let them make the offer, then take whatever they offer…they’ll probably come back with some token amount. Since you really don’t care about the money, it’s all gravy. Just insist that you be credited as the author.

Good Luck!

15

If I read the OP correctly, it is the software developer that wants to compensate Roland not his employer. There doesn’t seem to be a conflict if his boss is suggesting compensation.
Full credit and $500 min, you’re a consultant now, bill like one :slight_smile:

16

Hard to say what might happen here. I can see a couple of scenarios that might be worth looking into for any problems.

If compensation is paid, it might be seen as a “work for hire,” which would automatically give copyright to the company that paid the compensation. (Much like the rights to all your manuals are owned by your employer, Sunspace.) In other words, paying “compensation” might result in Roland being unable to release it to anybody, to charge for commercial use, etc. because by accepting compensation, he has given up his rights to it. Again, much the same as Sunspace has no rights to the manuals he is paid to write for his employer.

Of course, Roland could sell his rights. It wouldn’t be so much compensation then, as a price paid for intellectual property. And as a condition of sale, he could insist (for example) that all copies, or inclusion in future manuals, carry his name.

The drawback in both of the above scenarios though is that Roland no longer has rights to his work. Perhaps a knowledgeable Legal Doper can weigh in on the legalities involved in Roland retaining his rights and getting some money somehow?

On another note, as a former technical writer, I was always amazed when my nice, short, neat, clear instructions of a few pages became mammoth tomes of hundreds of pages after going through the Engineering and Marketing departments. Everybody had to sign off, it seemed, and nobody would do it until their changes (which they all made and which were never brief) were incorporated.

Facryingoutloud, if you’re gonna hire technical writers, let them do their job: writing brief, clear, and concise instructions! I’m glad to hear that Roland had a positive experience and his quick document was well-received, but as I’m sure Sunspace will attest, such an occurrence is the exception, not the rule.

17

Another thing to consider is whether the cheat sheet would be considered a derivative work of the original manual.

18

Does it have icons, screenshots, etc that are copied from the original manual? From the original software?

(Copying stuff from the manual you may need to get permission for, but copying screenshots is a really grey area I am not certain of… being as I work in an environment where all my work is for hire and my resources either belong to the same company I do, so tom speak, or are licensed.)

19

The time to ask for money is before you give it away.

20

Are you salaried or hourly? If salaried, one could say your employer did pay you to write it - I write lots of stuff not explicitly ordered, and do lots of stuff at home.

Though your boss suggested that you ask for money, based on what my wife gets as a writer you could expect a few hundred bucks at most for it. You should check the conflict of interest rules at your company also. It might not be worth the hassle.

What is worth it is getting your name on the cheat sheet. That establishes you as an expert, and that can be worth a lot more than a few hundred bucks. But getting a few free licenses for your company couldn’t hurt either, and may be more than worth it to you at performance evaluation time.