Quick Question, Quick Answer 4.12.05
Q: If I have published pieces that don’t have my byline on them, can I use them as clips?
A: Sure, why not. I myself don’t often actually send these as ambassadors as my work, often because there’s no byline for a reason (it’s something very sales-y, or it was a really short piece), but I still include the publication on my resume and list of published pieces.
If it still gives you a weird feeling, do what freelancer Claire Walter does: “Some years ago, I wrote the entire Colorado Front Range and Wyoming sections for the Michelin Green Guide to the West, she discusses on Freelance Success. “Michelin gives photo/illustration credits but no writers’ bylines, so I put it on my resume followed by the parenthetical ‘No Byline.’ No problem.”
By the way, if you have an article printed that was supposed to have a byline on it but somehow got cut off, you can ask your editor nicely if they can draft up a copy just for you with your byline on it, for your clip files. This happened a few times when I wrote for a local weekly here in Chicago and the editor was happy to send me a revised clip: even better, the revised version was on nice, long-lasting heavy paper, instead of newsprint.
Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our 
