A freelancer on a popular writing board asked, “Can you use ghostwritten clips as samples?”  The advice she got ranged from, “Oh, I do it all the time,” to “You should never use ghostwriting for clips.”  What’s the big deal?  Well, in my opinion, there are two main issues at play here:

• Breech of Contract
• Breech of Privacy

What do I mean?  Well, think about it this way.  Let’s take the breech of privacy first.  When you ghostwrite for someone, you’re being paid to keep a secret.  Essentially, if you’re truly ghostwriting, as opposed to just writing without a byline, you’re producing copy that someone else will most likely pass off as his (or her) own.  He may not say they wrote it but it’s only reasonable to assume that someone visiting John Doe’s blog will assume that John Doe is the author.

When you use John Doe’s blog as a sample for a prospective client, you’re basically exposing him as a liar.  Does that sound fair to you?  Maybe John Doe will never know that you’ve confided in a few potential clients that you wrote that content.  It doesn’t matter.  You’ve still violated his privacy, even if he never finds out.

Then there’s the breech of contract issue.   Some freelancer writers will argue that using ghostwritten samples is all right so long as you have the client’s permission first.  I have to ask why you would even have the nerve to ask.  You agreed to ghostwrite and you took money for your work.  Going back after the fact and asking if you can then use that work as samples is a lot like saying, “Yeah, I know we had an agreement but I’m going to change the rules now.”

Maybe I’m making too much of this but there are just some things I think an ethical freelancer would never do.  Using ghostwritten articles as samples is one of them.