Most writers skip contracts until a client uses their work without paying, asks for unlimited revisions, or publishes a piece under a different byline. All of these situations are preventable. Here is what your contract needs to cover — in plain English.
Why freelance writers need contracts
Without a contract, you have no enforceable agreement about scope, timeline, payment, or rights. A client who decides to revise your work heavily, delay payment indefinitely, or use it in ways you never agreed to is operating in a grey area that a contract would have made clear.
Contracts also filter clients. A client who pushes back on signing a basic, fair agreement is telling you something about how they will treat the working relationship. The discomfort of that early conversation is nothing compared to a payment dispute after delivery.
What every freelance writer contract must include
- Deliverables: Exactly what you will provide — format, word count range, number of articles, specific topics or briefs.
- Deadline: The date the draft is due. For ongoing work, the cadence (e.g., two posts per month, delivered by the 15th).
- Revisions: How many rounds of revisions are included and what constitutes a revision versus a full rewrite.
- Payment: Total fee, due date (net 14 is standard), accepted payment methods, and late payment consequences.
- Rights: What rights you are transferring and under what conditions (exclusive vs. non-exclusive, duration, territory).
- Kill fee: If the client cancels a project after you have done substantial work, what percentage you are owed.
- Byline: Whether you will be credited, or if it is ghostwritten and under what confidentiality terms.
Copyright and rights transfer for writers
By default, you own the copyright to everything you write. When you deliver work to a client, you are granting them a license to use it — not necessarily transferring the copyright. This distinction matters enormously for how the work can be used.
Common arrangements include: First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) for publications that want exclusive first-run rights in North America, all rights transfer (where the client owns it completely — charge a significant premium for this), and work-for-hire agreements common in content marketing where the client owns the work as if they wrote it.
What is a kill fee and when should you use one?
A kill fee is compensation paid when a client cancels a project after work has begun. Standard kill fees are 25 to 50 percent of the full project fee, depending on how far the work progressed. For longer projects, you can specify kill fee percentages at different stages of completion.
Kill fees protect you from clients who commission work speculatively and then pull back. They are standard practice in journalism and increasingly expected in content marketing. Include one in every contract.
Making contracts part of your standard process
The best time to send a contract is before you start any work, including discovery calls and research. Make it part of your standard onboarding so it does not feel like a confrontational addition to the relationship — it is simply how you do business.
DocuSign, HelloSign, and similar tools make digital signing frictionless for clients. A template stored in your CRM means you can send a contract in two minutes. See how this fits into a broader client management system in our guide on managing writing clients professionally.
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