Comments on: Contract Must-Haves

By: Val

Val — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:17:03 +0000

Lori, you are the BEST! Thank you for this, it just helped me out in a huge way.

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:54:00 +0000

I’m so glad that I’m doing all but one of these! I guess you could say that my education was gotten the hard way as well. Plus, as I’ve worked away from working with large writing companies and more with smaller, independent webmasters, it’s given me the chance to write things up on my terms. I also list in my contracts who owns the piece and what rights they have. I don’t mind selling off my rights to most pieces but I retain the right to use them as part of my portfolio and may be published as such.

By: Eileen Coale

Eileen Coale — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:13:00 +0000

Ditto. I paid for my “education” the hard way.

By: Lori

Lori — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:09:00 +0000

The latter, Sal. Sadly, the latter. But unlike our financial gurus, I learn from my mistakes. :))

By: Sal

Sal — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:58:00 +0000

Printed and filed for when the time comes. Thanks for sharing all of this, and I can only assume that this was either told to you when you started, or you learned by making the mistakes yourself. Which was it if I might ask?

By: Angie Ledbetter

Angie Ledbetter — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:14:00 +0000

I think I’ll print these out for future use. Thanks for more great tippage.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Excellent addition, Eileen. I’ve used that one on both contracts and invoices (especially when they’re late in paying).

By: Eileen Coale

Eileen Coale — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:49:00 +0000

Good ones, Lori. I’ve used the revision timeline clause since I began, and it has been crucial a number of times to keep my cash flow coming in on time. I also put in a clause that all rights to the material passes to them only upon payment in full (which means you can bust them if they publish or post copy that isn’t paid for yet). And a clause that says they own the rights to all client-supplied material (especially important in a “rewrite” job).

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:15:00 +0000

I mention something similar in today’s post — because I’ve been dangled by an editor who promised back in April to get back in two weeks to get the money to me “sooner rather than later” on a piece that’s “payment on acceptance” — only it’s now six months later and there’s no official acceptance, and therefore no payment. And it’s not something I could use EVER for ANYTHING else.

So, I’ll be adding timeframes in contracts from now on.

URGH!!!