Damian Wampler

get it in writing

I’m a writer and creator. But I can’t draw. Not well. So, I hire artists to bring my creations to life. With that comes the necessity of making a written agreement with the artists that says what will be done, when, for how much, and who owns the work afterwords.

Contracts protect both parties

Having a written contract is essential. It keeps things neat in the event that your book become the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Walking Dead. Or the next thing on Netflix. Even if things don’t go that far, you don’t want to get into an argument with your artist about how many revisions are allowed. Just get it all down in print early.

Making money is the key element that sets the necessity for a contract into motion. If I weren’t going to earn a profit from the artwork, then the contract isn’t so important. The need for clarity begins when I use someone else’s artwork and I start to earn money from the it. If there’s nothing in writing saying that this is allowed, they the person making money off the art, the writer/creator for example, is in big trouble. They artist can sue and say that they never gave permission. The contract protects both the creator and the artist from these kinds of problems.

The legal mumbo-jumbo can seem daunting, but really it’s quite simple. The bottom line is that you should have everything in writing once you start earning income from your project. Ideally, you want everything in writing before you even go into the production of an eight-page sample, which will set a precedent for the contact you’ll sign once you find a publisher. Get everything in writing and signed before money starts to flow. Putting basic things in in an email works, but if money is going to change hands, it’s best to put it on paper and sign.

ELEMENTS TO CONSIDER

The obvious things that need to go into the contract include who will be doing the work, what the work consists of, how the art will be used, for how long, and how much it costs. There are many things in a work for hire contract that are not so obvious, however!

Here are some of the things in include in my contracts:

• Usage
• Cost
• Timeline/deadline
• Revisions
• File size and type
• Payment (Paypal, Transferwise, who pays the transfer fees)
• Character sketches
• Complimentary copies
• Social media embargo or requirement
• Rights – who gets the copyright
• Termination clause

Legal documents, unlike fine print on a credit card statement, is meant to be understandable by anyone and everyone. Even someone with no legal background should be able to comprehend the contract. If your legal contract is not clear to an average person, you should re-write it.

I’m going to include some contracts I’ve used in the past. My contracts are work for hire, meaning that after I pay the artist, the art belongs to me and I can publish and exploit the work however I want. I have put royalties in some of my contracts, so feel free to take a look.

!!!! DISCLAIMER !!!!

I’m not a lawyer. These templates are for you to use as guides. Please read them closely and modify them for your own purposes. And please have a lawyer read these contracts before you send them off and have people sign them. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LEGAL ISSUES YOU FACE DOWN THE ROAD FOR USING THESE AGREEMENTS. You get the idea. Use at your own risk, and have a professional review them.

Here is the most recent contract I signed. I was signing a contract with a publisher, so I wanted to make sure all my ducks were in a row with the artist. It includes royalties for the artist for a period of 5 years after publication of the project. This isn’t typical, but I want to keep this artist with me and I wanted to make the deal good. Also, I can’t pay that much up front. Not as much as I’d like to. I’m a writer, not a publisher, so all the money is coming out of my pocket. So if this project does make money down the road, I will share it with the artist. Again, most writers don’t do this and most artists want all the money up front.

This is the contact I typically use for simple jobs. I edited it all down to one page to keep things simple. This is a little basic, but good for indie projects and things you are going to fund yourself.

Here is a short agreement I used for my first cover commission.

This is a 2-page work for hire contract with no royalties. This is the contract I used for many years before I found it too long and made the 1-pager!

Here is a similar 2-page contract with some royalties for the artist afterwards. The royalties were something that the artist asked for and I agreed. The royalties were not in the original contract.