Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Ghostwriting Contracts

Howdy,

Updated Below

I just had a friend drop me a question about finding or making a contract for a ghostwriting project. I've never done, but I immediately thought of things that I would want spelled out very clearly. Here's my list of questions that would need clauses. If anyone else has any suggestions, or knows where a model contract might be obtained, please leave a comment.

Rate of pay?
Fiction or non-fiction?
Book length or short?
Bragging rights? Or NDA (non-disclosure agreement)?
in terms of being able to point to the project in agent queries.
Credited on the cover, in acknowledgments, or uncredited?
Who holds the copyright?
Share of royalties or work for hire?
Is the project already sold to a publisher?
When do you get paid and by whom?
Who determines whether you've fulfilled the contract and if you get paid?
Writing from notes? From interviews? From an idea?
Who has final approval over the text?

So, what am I missing?

Update: In a thread where I asked the contracts question on one of my lists, it was pointed out that the contract should also spell out everything a normal contract does. To which my response was essentially "doh!" because I should have thought of that myself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Kelly:

I had the same questions when I did my first ghostwriting contract. Other things writers might want to consider include how much research is required, spelling out a payment schedule and how many revisions are included.

I've got a couple of sample contract templates in my ghostwriting e-book, and more info at my site if you need it. It's at www.GhostwriteSuccess.com.

Hope this helps!

Lou

Kelly McCullough said...

Hey Lou,

Thank you! That's fabulous info.