Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Letter of Agreement

As a freelancer, it is always good to get everything in writing up front. When dealing with clients, it is good to use your own boilerplate contract rather than theirs, at least initially. This allows you to make the terms clear and beneficial to your needs from the beginning, even if negotiation or transfer to their own contract is necessary afterwards. This is called a Letter of Agreement.

I have long used a variation of the sample that is provided through the Graphic Artists Guild. This is a printable version of their example.


In addition, they have a glossary of contract terms, as these are frequently used and can be misunderstood. The glossary can be found here.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm always available if anyone wants to discuss usage rights, Work-for-Hire issues or anything along the lines of what we deal with when we put our business hat on.
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1 comment:

  1. Hi Ted, I'm also a freelancer, and I'm wondering about the terms of illustration and design layout.
    I'm curently doing some illustrations for a Children book, and I have agreed to certain number for my fee which I consider as a book fee only. But my buyer - which is the same as the author intended to publish my work in other media such as merchandise mugs, t-shirts etc. Am I entitled to a fee for all that other media besides the book? I should think that I do. But my buyer insist that if he buys my work (no mather for the book only or any other media) then it's up to him as the author to do what ever he wishes FOREVER. Is that true?

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