Common questions about white papers

Simple, straightforward answers about developing and using white papers…and why it makes sense to turn to The White Paper Pro for yours.

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The White Paper Pro is led by Scott Flood, who has been writing professionally for four decades. Scott spent many years working for advertising agencies in Chicago and Indianapolis before establishing his own business in 1995. Besides writing white papers and other projects for clients, he’s a frequent author on writing and marketing topics for business publications and websites.

We don’t have a single style for white papers. We capture the company or organization’s style or voice to ensure the white paper sounds like them.

We don’t subcontract the writing for white papers, so that we can maintain the quality standards we’ve established. It also limits the number of projects we can take on.

If you’re referring to documentation or manuals, that’s not an area we normally handle.

You and your team are the experts. If you share what we need to know, we’ll present it in ways that connect effectively with your audience.

Not for us. We work with clients from all over the U.S., many of whom we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting. We’re accustomed to working efficiently by email and phone. If you really want to meet in person as part of your white paper project, we can arrange that, but the cost will be significantly higher.

The time to develop your white paper depends largely upon you and your team. Typically, the biggest delay is finding a time to connect with your experts so we can get the background information needed to proceed. Once we have the background information, developing the first draft of a white paper typically takes about two weeks. We’ll let you know when you can expect to receive the draft of your white paper.

If you need your white paper that quickly, we’re probably not your best choice.

No. We’ve found the inherent quality and technical issues associated with videoconferences often interfere with the information-gathering process, so we have opted not to use them.

Many of the white papers we handle are for products and processes that are in development or are otherwise confidential. We do not share your reference materials or other information with outside parties (with the exception of our transcriptionist or graphic designer when needed).

Professional white paper writers typically charge between $3,000 and $7,000 for writing a 6-to-10-page white paper. Using a professional graphic designer to design a white paper is typically an additional $1,000 to $3,000. The efficiency of the White Paper Pro’s process and the benefits of our extensive experience help us keep our fees competitive. After we discuss your needs, we’ll develop an estimate and rough outline for your approval.

The estimated fee will be your total cost, unless there are changes to the scope of work. If there are changes to that scope (for example, a major new development that needs to be added or the need for interviews with additional experts) at any stage of the project, we’ll pause work, provide a revised estimate and proceed once that’s approved.

No two white papers are exactly the same and the process of gathering information differs. Rather than quote one fee that would benefit some and penalize others, we create a custom estimate based upon your needs and situation.

While we concentrate on writing, our team does include highly skilled graphic designers, and we can provide an estimate for those services.

If you have existing relationships with other suppliers such as graphic designers, we’ll be happy to work cooperatively with them.

Not for us. Many of our clients have existing relationships with ad agencies, PR firms and other suppliers. Those suppliers may not be interested in creating white papers or may lack the expertise to develop them.

Nope. There are so many factors that influence relationships with your audiences that it would be impractical for us to offer a guarantee. We will do everything we can to make your copy as effective as possible. After all, we’d like to earn your business (and referrals to your colleagues) on an ongoing basis.

Once you’ve fully paid the fee for the development of your white paper, we assign the rights to you to use it for any purpose (except for reselling it to another company for their use in marketing, promotion, or education). You can reprint your white paper for your own uses however often you want, or post it online, without paying us additional fees.

Put the power of white papers to work for you