In addition to the direct interview, there are other advantages of authorization that often allow the author a much deeper access to research the subject:

- Access to records, correspondence, and journals in the subject's possession

- explicit endorsement from the subject encourages their family, friends and colleagues to work with the author.

- Opportunities for the subject themselves to fact-check and contextualize the research.

That must be balanced against the fact that authorization also often provides the subject an opportunity to review the content, giving them a hand in crafting the narrative and/or suppressing unflattering details.