Contracts Revealed!
To help writers and editors prepare for a successful literary collaboration
After receiving my MA in Writing and a Certificate in Manuscript Editing, I worked on staff as an editor for large publishing companies in Manhattan, including McGraw-Hill, Condé Nast, Springer, and Penguin. After maternity leave, I opened my private practice in 2010. When I started freelancing, I obtained a work-for-hire agreement template, and have continually improved the language based on lessons learned from collaborating on hundreds of book projects and nurturing healthy, successful client relationships. I also edit theses, essays, articles, environmental impact statements, scientific studies, and business reports.
The intention of this post is to help writers who plan to hire an editor form a set of expectations, so they can gauge their safety and ultimately improve the odds of seeing their work published.
Editors reading this post will receive the benefit of the time I’ve invested refining my agreements after almost every job. Please feel free to borrow language from these documents.
I had planned to paywall this post. In it, I share years of accumulated knowledge from a career I invested in. The idea of paywalling gives me anxiety, as the pressure to produce Very Useful Content On a Regular Basis feels like a lofty goal. I am a solo mother. Editing work helps me provide for my two daughters. I’m devoted to this newsletter as a passion project and more importantly as an advocacy project. I am so grateful to my paid subscribers. Paid subscriptions are very much appreciated.
This post includes an Author’s Bill of Rights, and covers expectations, nomenclature, pitfalls, success stories, and of course, sample work-for-hire contracts. Most often, these are “retainer/remainder” agreements, where the client pays in halves. For projects where content is delivered in parts, versus a full manuscript, a writing and publishing coaching agreement will support the ongoing exchange.
Preparing to Hire an Editor: Intuition and Discernment
I would recommend contracting with an editor once you’ve finished a draft of your full manuscript, instead of feeding an editor your book piecemeal; however, in the case of an essay collection, the scope of work might be more calculable.
You must hold in mind a writer’s Bill of Rights when you are in the market for an editor. A development edit comments on character, plot, structure, and coherence and should include an evaluation or Development Summary; a copy edit corrects grammar, punctuation, and usage. I am certified in both fields, and perform both functions for clients.
You already know that I come from a place of reverent respect for a writer’s life’s work; I hold the writer’s intellectual property as well as the authenticity of their voice as sacred and worth guarding. In my view, an author has reasonable expectations to:
Meet and greet in an initial video call, free of charge ✔
Inquire about an editor’s credentials, work history, and track record ✔
Request references ✔
Request that the editor perform a short editing sample—750 words or a $40 value is reasonable ✔
Ask questions about an editor’s workload, calendar, and scheduling ✔
Receive a contractual agreement that includes an exit clause ✔
If you’re a writer, please see my earlier post, “Thoughts on Beta Readers” for some cautions about finding an editor who’s a good match.
Personality and chemistry count for a lot, gleaned through initial conferences.
The contracts shared below (redacted for privacy) will serve to remind you when you are choosing an editor that you deserve a promise of confidentiality; a clear and transparent pricing plan; a well-defined scope of work, and how add-ons would be priced when work exceeds the initial project scope; and a “Stakes No Claim” clause that promises the editor will seek neither profit nor credit for the work.
It is not advisable to offer to compensate an editor in shares of royalties. I have bartered editing services for a writer’s professional services, and I have exchanged my writing for review with other writers; however, hypothetical future royalties are weak currency, and no editor I know will sign on to edit for the promise of a share in the book’s royalties (or a screenplay’s prospects of getting greenlit).
I recommend that both writers and editors buy The Paper It’s Written On, which is rather formal, but does a great job setting the standard for agreements that are bound to succeed.
An Author’s Bill of Rights
You have the right to request—and communicate with—an editor’s references. ✔
You have the right to know fees soon into the presentation, web site, or conference call, so your time is not wasted if the price is beyond your budget. ✔
You have the right to request a sliding scale in payment; an editor may not be able to flex on their fees, but it’s customary to negotiate fees and payment plans that work for you while also acknowledging the editor’s need to earn a living, and their worthiness to your success. ✔
You have rights to your intellectual property, and you don’t have to share or transfer these rights. When there is potential financial gain, there exist both appropriate and inappropriate requests that the author split profits. Consult the Authors Guild for legal advice, which is provided for members. ✔
You have the right to claim originality without applying for copyright or trademark using government avenues. ✔
You have the right to publish true information, and an obligation to use discretion when it comes to disseminating information that could threaten a source’s or subject’s livelihood. As above, consult an intellectual property legal professional when there are any doubts or gray areas, prior to publication. ✔
You have the right to be treated fairly and with respect by every person along the chain of mass market publication. ✔
Any contracts should give you the right to terminate, and enumerate the process and conditions for doing so. ✔
You have a right to mutually beneficial personal and professional relationships. ✔
Contracting with an Editor: Establishing Mutual Trust
There is great variation in work-for-hire agreements. They are usually from 3 to 7 pages long. The basic contract will contain the names of the parties, the length and genre of the work to be edited, a description of services, a fee schedule, a confidentiality clause, the scope of work, transparent terms around add-ons and rush fees, an exit clause, a “stakes no claim” clause, and a signature/date bar.
Bonus bits include defining what the shared and individual responsibilities are, and what software and file exchange protocols you’ll follow. Authors should make every effort to format documents according to the editor’s guidelines. This is important—it brings the author closer to the polished draft, ready for submission, right from the start. A good development editor will know your genre’s market, and will have worked closely with acquisitions editors and sales teams at publishing houses. I tell authors in conferences that I can’t guarantee I will find them an agent or use my contacts to directly connect them with agents or publishers. However, if I see that a project could be a great match for someone I know, I may facilitate a meeting. My confidentiality clause says I will only release info to third parties with the author’s permission.
Since sometimes there is uncertainty around when project work will begin, I include an expiry date, after which terms may be subject to change. This a way to spur work to begin promptly and to account for inflation if work does not begin promptly.
You can expect your editor to be familiar with Chicago Manual of Style or other relevant style guides, such as APA, AMA, AP, and more of the most-used style guides for mass market publishing. You can also give your editor a style sheet. An editor may create a style sheet, and this work that should be compensated—worth the investment, IMO.
The Goods: Real Contracts, Redacted for Privacy
My contracts have become highly specific. Every project teaches me a lesson. The authors who’ve sent me newer versions of a draft I’d already begun work on are to be thanked for discussions of workflow in my contracts; same for the authors who altered Google docs while I was at work on them; same for the authors whose second drafts contained 20,000 more words than their first drafts. When a manuscript is in development, it is natural for the second draft to come in longer than the first draft (unless my task was to trim, trim, trim, which is just as likely as when I need to spur, spur, spur an author to produce more content). Asking an editor to read long copy and decide what to edit is a no-no; an editor gets paid to read. I am very thorough and work slowly, which is why it benefits authors to hire me at a per-word rate. This doesn’t mean my turnaround times are slow; it means I work long hours, LOL!
A couple of notes: Editors need to guard against not getting paid after work has been performed, which is why a retainer/remainder agreement is most often used. You’ve established trust with your editor to begin with, and pre-paying for services should feel fair and reasonable; a deposit to begin work, and the rest once you’ve seen the quality of the work, is a compromise equitable to both parties. I’ve never had to chase down payment, nor have I been asked to return funds. “Nonrecoupable” means the editor is not obligated to return funds. Should an author be terribly dissatisfied with an editor’s performance, they may need to pursue recompense through small claims court. If, against the odds, an author claimed to be dissatisfied with my work, I would be ready to defend my editing suggestions with style guide rules and explanations or justifications for every recommendation. My aim is to educate, and permanently make my clients better writers through supplying the “why” behind key suggestions.
I ask authors to give me a list of questions or points they’d like me to consider while I’m evaluating their manuscript, in addition to my usual thorough treatment. This helps them get the maximum benefit from our work together.
The reason I ask clients to format manuscripts according to the industry standard is so that the manuscript is closer to being ready to submit with every pass. Formatting is typically the author’s responsibility, or they can pay an editor for the time it takes format the manuscript, if they’re not adept with software. I’d rather meet via Zoom and teach a client how to use their software, which I do quite often, and which benefits the client for the rest of their career.
I invite you to read and share the example contracts below. I can share more contracts for different genres and scenarios, including writing coach agreements, if readers would like me to. I am happy to answer any questions in the comment thread. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, as I put a lot of thought into this Substack—and I also have a lot of editing to do, as well as the desire to work on my personal writing. (You can find links to my published essays on my web site.) Enjoy!
We all work differently, like I don't meet with authors until after I read their work, but it is good to be clear about an agreement in advance.
Even after 25 years of editing, I come across new things. This week a client wanted me to sign a confidentiality agreement, which is fine.