Hi, I’m Cliff Eninco, legal editor of SBTV.com and author of the best selling book Small Business Survival Guide. So you’re a freelancer writer or editor or video producer or audio producer and you’re struggling to make a living and all of a sudden a huge website plumps in your lap and says, “We want content from you, we want you to write articles for us every week, every month, whatever and we’ll pay you”. Isn’t this a miracle? I mean this is just what you dreamed about when you’re a freelancer? But this one will catch though, we do want you to sign a little contract here before you start writing for us. Make sure you have a lawyer to look at this before you sign because sometimes websites and not just websites either, any one who is looking the publisher content may have a few little crazy things in that agreement that you need to discuss with them before you sign on the dotted line.
Here is some of the things I advise clients to look for when I’m representing writers or authors or any other content providers who are providing internet content. Number one make sure the contract is clear on two very essential points. Number one, how much do you get paid, number two and more importantly when do you get paid? When do you actually get the check in the mail? Believe it or not, you’d be amazed how many freelance contracts I looked at that are not clear on those two points.
Those are the two most important points in the entire contract, how are you going to get paid, is it by the article or is by the word, is it by the week, by the month, how is it for being written, what exactly is that basis for calculating your fee and number two, when do you get paid? Watch out for clauses that say that, “You will be pay for your manuscript when it is then acceptable by us? Watch out for that one, because when that does exactly happened.
Now obviously, if the website posted your article then they have accepted it no issue there. But what if they accept the manuscript the guy says, “Yes, okay” but they never posted, have they accepted it have they not? Are you entitled to the payment are you not? If the contract is not crystal clear on that point you may wait forever for your payment. Always make sure that the contracts says that the payment will take place when the manuscript is expected or within ten days after the manuscript is submitted whichever is earlier, that is crystal clear. That way if you submitted manuscript and they don’t get back to you, all you’re going to do is wait ten days and you will get paid.
Be sure those two things are crystal clear, how much you get paid, when you get paid. Secondly, take a look out for the assignment of rights clause. This is usually in most web contracts and what it says is something like “When you submit your manuscript, we own your article, we own the copyright, we own all in electrical property rights to your article, you cannot take this article and sell it to somebody else and get a second fee.”
Now that’s terrific, they have an absolute right to that but this one little thing missing from that clause. How about, “When we have paid you in full we own all rights to the contract”. If you submit an article and they don’t accept it and another magazine or another website comes along wants an article on the same topic, if you haven’t been paid you should be able to sell that article to the other competing website and get it some money for your travel on time. That’s not going to happen though if you sign a naked assignment of rights clause that says “The minute you submit something to your website, they own it.”
At that point you would wash your copyright and you have no right to sell it to anyone else. Make sure that that assignment of rights is conditioned to upon you’re getting paid in full before you assign your copyright or any other intellectual property rights to anyone. First you get paid then you sell the copyright. Last but not the least, watch out for non-competing especially if you’re younger writer, a lot of website sometimes draw clauses and it says, “When this agreement is in effect you will not work for any our competitors” and it seems fair at first but be careful. As long as this contract is in effect, well how long is that going to be as they were stated expiration date in the contract or is it open indent?
You know, you might be agreeing for an unlimited time not to work for any other website in t he same industry that this website is in and that could limit a lot of opportunities and keep a lot of opportunities away from you. I always advice class especially younger ones try to avoid signing non-compete wherever possible. If the client insists on a non-compete make it as narrow as possible, make the name who their competitors are and make sure that it’s something you’re comfortable with. Because Murphy’s law when you’re a freelancer sooner do you sign a non-compete with company A then company B gives you a much better offer and you can’t accept it because of the non-compete you signed with the company A. I’m Cliff Ennico for SBTV.com
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