Comments on: A Word on Contracts

By: Lindsey M. Donner

Lindsey M. Donner — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:30:00 +0000

Ah, the least fun part of our jobs. I think that ownership of the work is a surprisingly important section that I don't always make as explicit as I should.

Payment terms are always included in mine, but mostly because they are contingent on certain results: e.g., a deposit is required up front, then an additional 25% upon completion of X, and final 25% upon Y. Of course, I am also writing contracts that are complex with many benchmarks, because for Well Versed Creative, we are often doing entire campaigns/websites/etc.

Anyone want to share a recent contract (sans names)? Or a free online source similar to the Bly contract you based yours on, Melissa?

By: Melissa Breau

Melissa Breau — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:20:23 +0000

Glad you like the idea of sending out an estimate … I came up with guarantee idea on my own, though the idea of providing an estimate itself is pretty standard, and I'm pretty proud of the approach (and its results thus far).

By: Ty Unglebower

Ty Unglebower — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:54:50 +0000

Good ideas. So far I have not used contracts very often, but when I did, Included much of this.

Most of my work is per assignment, since it is for publications. But when it isn't, I never charged per hour before, because it seems to me I couldn't prove directly how many hours I have spent on something after the fact. But your idea of providing an estimate for how many hours it will take, before you start, and promising to stay within an hour of that seems to eliminate that concern.