Freelance contracts

I've recently landed a few freelance editing gigs and while I feel pretty good about everyone's honesty, I need to come up with a contract to make sure they come up with the dough. One's a startup web site and I want to make sure I have a legal document in case of anything).

Anybody care to share contracts they've used in the past? I figure a freelance writing contract would be pretty similar in language and I can just tweak it if that's what you've got.

 

I do a lot of freelancing right now. Most of it is verbal agreements or e-mail agreements for contracts. I do keep my own bookkeeping records. I send out invoices at the end of the month to the companies and media outlets I work for. I include a spreadsheet with the date I covered an assignment or wrote the story, the name of the assignment (be it a game, preview, profile or feature), the amount agreed that I would be paid, the hours worked and expenses I incurred. I total up what I expect to be paid and send it to them.
This way I have a written account of the work I completed and the compensation I expected. Plus I have a record of expenses that I can use for tax purposes.
Mileage and car maintenance are part of my expenses, as if that wasn't already understood.
That's how I keep a written record of my contracts.

 

An email agreement between you and your editor about payment should suffice for a contract. I've never seen or heard of a writer issuing a contract to an editor/publisher. It's usually the other way around because media outlets are interested in protecting their copyrights, ownership of the research, originality of the material, and/or some exclusivity by having you agree to a non-compete clause.

For what it's worth... when I've signed contracts that discuss payment sometimes they were still not honored in a timely manner...mostly because know it would cost YOU more to sue them than the article was worth, so they're not too scared. One national magazine in particular is unbelievably horrible about paying writers. FYI:

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/exclusive_outside_plagued_by_layoffs_late_payments_to_freelancers_112918.asp