Are you a writer who gets paid to produce content for others? Such as blog posts or magazine articles? You need an article writing agreement to protect your rights.
Let’s face it. Verbal or email deals are too risky.
What if you pay writers for content? You’ll want a written contract with each writer too.
Of course, if you’re the client, the terms and conditions will be different from those in an agreement prepared to favor the writer.
In most cases, nearly everything about the contract is negotiable. However, you can start with an article writing contract with terms that generally favors your position and negotiate from the document. As a general rule, the other party will have few or no changes to make to your agreement, leaving you in the driver’s seat if there’s ever a dispute.
Important Contract Elements
To get started on your contract, here are 5 issues to cover.
1. Authorship Credit. Will the writer receive credit for the work (e.g. byline, co-author, etc.)?
2. Compensation. When and how will the writer be paid? Does the compensation include revisions? If so, how many revisions?
3. Ownership. Who owns the copyright for the content created? Will the writer retain it and license the work to the client? Or will the client own the copyright with the writer relinquishing all rights or retaining a limited license? Can the content be re-purposed by the client as a book or transformed into video or audio? If so, will there be additional compensation?
4. Confidentiality. Will the existence of the relationship between the parties be kept a secret? Or can the writer disclose information to third parties or the public (e.g. the client’s identity, the content written, etc.)?
5. Amount of Content. Will the writer create a single work or a series of articles/blog posts? Will this be a single project or multiple projects over a period of time?
Although there are other issues to address in an article writing agreement (e.g. payment terms), these are some of the fundamentals for establishing the relationship between writer and client.
Where To Get An Article Writing Agreement For Your Business
An experienced business contracts lawyer can prepare a template to suit your needs that can be used on multiple projects. Attorney Young prepares article writing agreements on a flat fee basis per the firm’s Business Contracts Legal Protection Package.
