Bylined Articles and Op-Eds, Written in Your VoiceExpert articles, op-eds, essays, profiles and interviews from your material, in English or Russian. I write every piece myself.
The hardest part of an article is rarely the first sentence. It’s working out which of your twenty ideas is the main one, and which you’ll have to let go, even though you’re fond of them all. You have the subject, the notes and the experience, but not the text. Or the text exists, but the introduction runs to a page and a half, the point is hiding in the fifth paragraph, and your natural voice, the moment you sat down to write something “for publication”, quietly left and sent a press release in its place.I write bylined articles for experts, executives and founders: columns, essays, profiles and interviews for websites, magazines and company publications. I’m Olga Sverchkova, a writer and lawyer. I work from your material and your ideas, and we always start with one question: what do you want to say, and who needs to read it? The answer shapes the format, the length and which details are worth keeping.You work with me throughout, and I write the text myself. I live in Tbilisi and work remotely. For English-language projects, all communication is in writing. I give you a fee and timetable after we discuss the project, before work begins.
What is a bylined article?
A bylined article carries a named credit. In the pieces I write for you, the starting point is your knowledge and perspective: what you know about the subject and what you want the reader to understand.A piece like that can still have a practical job: explaining your approach, presenting a project, describing a profession or introducing a person. Even then it needs an inner logic, not just a list of required points. The reader should understand why you began where you did, how one idea leads to the next, and what has changed in their understanding by the final paragraph.You don’t need polished material for that. Notes on your phone, a draft you’ve started three times and abandoned three times: all of it is material, and often very good material. The job is to find what matters in it and decide what view of the subject you want to offer the reader.
Expert articles: your knowledge, my writing
An expert article is for when a subject needs setting out step by step, something complicated needs explaining, or you want to show how you work. You’re the expert: the knowledge, experience and examples are yours, and I shape them so the reader can follow your thinking without getting lost in jargon.I don’t invent credentials, case studies or results. Only what you genuinely know and can stand behind goes out under your name. If the piece includes figures, research or examples from your work, you provide the sources, and I make sure the information is presented accurately, with no rounding in the flattering direction. You check the accuracy of the information you provide; I take responsibility for the writing, its structure, clarity and voice. If an important fact cannot be verified, we decide how to make that clear or leave it out.
Op-eds, columns, essays, profiles and interviews
Op-eds and columns
A short piece with a clear position, for a magazine, a business publication or a website. An op-ed needs one idea and a voice the reader wants to hear out.
Essays
When the point isn’t just the facts but a way of looking at them: a place, a profession, an event or an experience. An essay can follow a thought more freely. These are pieces for readers, not academic assignments.
Profiles
A portrait of a founder, a colleague or someone who’s very good at what they do, for a website, a magazine or a company publication. A profile lives on detail: one precise observation says more about a person than a paragraph listing their virtues.
Interviews
I prepare questions and shape the answers into a text, or work with a recording you already have. In English, interviews with me take place through written questions and answers, not calls. We agree in advance who takes part, who contacts the interviewee and how quotes are approved.
A web article, a profile for a company newsletter and a magazine column can draw on the same material and still be built quite differently. If the publication has guidelines, it’s best to have them before I start rather than reshape a finished text afterwards.
What I don’t write
I don’t take on advertising or sales copy, SEO articles priced by word count, or academic assignments.
Legal essays, commentary and expert articles on Russian law for businesses and media are offered on my law practice website: legal content writing services. This page covers my writing on other subjects.
A short piece with a clear position, for a magazine, a business publication or a website. An op-ed needs one idea and a voice the reader wants to hear out.
Essays
When the point isn’t just the facts but a way of looking at them: a place, a profession, an event or an experience. An essay can follow a thought more freely. These are pieces for readers, not academic assignments.
Profiles
A portrait of a founder, a colleague or someone who’s very good at what they do, for a website, a magazine or a company publication. A profile lives on detail: one precise observation says more about a person than a paragraph listing their virtues.
Interviews
I prepare questions and shape the answers into a text, or work with a recording you already have. In English, interviews with me take place through written questions and answers, not calls. We agree in advance who takes part, who contacts the interviewee and how quotes are approved.
A web article, a profile for a company newsletter and a magazine column can draw on the same material and still be built quite differently. If the publication has guidelines, it’s best to have them before I start rather than reshape a finished text afterwards.
What I don’t write
I don’t take on advertising or sales copy, SEO articles priced by word count, or academic assignments.
Legal essays, commentary and expert articles on Russian law for businesses and media are offered on my law practice website: legal content writing services. This page covers my writing on other subjects.
Who will write your article?
I’ve been practising law in St Petersburg for more than twenty years, including criminal cases. I’m a recipient of the Golden Pen of Russia award and the author of a legal column whose title translates as A Lawyer to the Rescue. Explaining complicated things in plain words without losing accuracy has been part of my working life all along. That’s why I ask questions, check wording and try to understand not just what you’re saying but why you’re saying it that way.
You can read the prologue and first five chapters of Nobody Told Me About Tbilisi for free to get a sense of my writing. For your piece, we’ll find its own voice: whose perspective it’s written from, how it will be signed and how personal it should be. My job isn’t to make every text sound like me. It’s to make yours sound like you on a good day.
You can read the prologue and first five chapters of Nobody Told Me About Tbilisi for free to get a sense of my writing. For your piece, we’ll find its own voice: whose perspective it’s written from, how it will be signed and how personal it should be. My job isn’t to make every text sound like me. It’s to make yours sound like you on a good day.
How much does a bylined article cost?
It depends on the format, length and state of the material: a column built on your notes and a profile that needs input from three people are different jobs. I give you a fee and timetable after we discuss the project, and we confirm them before work begins.
If the story needs a book or a speech
Sometimes an article opens up something much bigger: a family history, a memoir or the story of a long career. Then it may be time to think about a memoir. And if the words need to be spoken to a room rather than read, have a look at my speechwriting service. All my writing services are gathered on the Ghostwriting Services page.
Author Olga Sverchkova
I’m a writer and a Russian lawyer with more than twenty years of legal practice in St Petersburg. I write about relationships, choices, memory, cities and everyday life.
Frequently asked questions
How is a bylined article different from ordinary article writing services?
Here, your knowledge, position and voice are the starting point. Rather than simply researching a topic, I work out what you want to say and write from your material. We agree on the byline before I begin.
Can I come to you with just an idea?
Yes. Tell me what you’d like to say and who it’s for. After our first exchange, it’ll be clearer whether there’s enough material and what else is needed.
Can you work on my draft?
Yes. First I’ll see whether light revisions will do or the piece needs rebuilding in structure and content. We agree on that before we start.
Do you guarantee publication?
No. That’s the publication’s decision. I’ll prepare the piece to its guidelines, but that doesn’t guarantee acceptance or a publication date.
Whose name goes on the article, and who owns the rights?
We agree on credit before work begins; I can write without being named. Our contract sets out the transfer of exclusive rights to the text and how it may be used. Under Russian law, authorship itself is not transferable.
Will anyone know we worked together?
We agree in writing on confidentiality and whether I receive a credit. I do not publish commissioned work or include it in my portfolio without your permission. I do not use stories from my legal practice, even without names.
Do you write legal articles?
Yes. Legal essays, commentary and expert articles on Russian law are covered on my law practice website: legal content writing services.
What’s included?
The agreed text in the agreed format. We settle the scope and revisions before we start. Layout, illustrations and posting on a website aren’t included.
Tell me about your article
Send me a few lines: what the piece is about, who it’s for and where it should appear. You can attach a draft, or just write a paragraph about the idea. That paragraph is usually where it starts.