Sample Contract
To: Jane Doe
17 Street Lane
Smalltown, MA 01234
voice: 123-456-7890
fax: 123-456-7899
email: janedoe@aol.com
Date: November 23, 2023
Contract for Editing of Best-Selling Novel (working title)
Services to Be Provided; Procedures
You (Jane Doe) and I (Katharine O'Moore-Klopf, doing business as KOK Edit) are contracting for my services as both a developmental editor (DE) and a copyeditor (CE). You will submit the manuscript to me as a double-spaced Word document, with left and right margins of 1 inch and top and bottom margins of 1.5 inches, providing the document both in hard-copy form and electronic form. Upon receipt of the electronic document, I will do a word count on it and provide you with a page count using the standard of 250 words per page, so that you will have a rough idea of how much I will be charging for editing the entire manuscript. I will then begin work on your manuscript. I will edit a minimum of 50 manuscript pages per week (where 1 page = 250 words); when time permits, I will edit more pages per week.
As a DE, I will establish a collaborative relationship with you and help shape your manuscript from your finished draft, after you have revised it in light of comments from your writers' group. I will provide feedback, guidance, and encouragement. I will assess your manuscript as a whole for style, tone, structure, logic, and accuracy. I will then eliminate the manuscript's weaknesses and enhance its strengths. I may reorganize the manuscript, rewrite portions of text, eliminate wordiness, write transitions and summaries, and work with you via email to resolve inconsistencies or clarify confusing passages.
As a CE, I will find and correct mistakes in grammar, spelling, and usage (e.g., Is this the right word to use for what you're trying to say here?). I will try to ensure consistency and completeness. I will also style the work so that it conveys the message you intended. With each batch of work completed, I will send you an updated version of the style sheet, which will document the style choices I will make for your manuscript.
You will review the entire edited manuscript, answering my queries and adding material where necessary, and return it to me electronically. I will then do a quick cleanup edit, at the rate of $XX.00/hour, to catch any errors introduced along the way. Once editing is complete and you are ready to approach publishers, I will not write book proposals or assist in the process of finding a publisher, because those processes are the purview of agents. However, I can edit your book proposal, if you wish, for the rate of $XX.00/hour.
Payment for Services Rendered
My rate for this project is $XX.00/hour, and I expect work to progress at a rate of 4 to 5 pages per hour, where 1 page = 250 words. Before I begin work, I require payment of a deposit of $250.00, made via PayPal (using the PayPal icon on the administrative page of my web site) or by money order. I will credit this amount toward the total bill for the project. I will complete work and return it in weekly batches, sending an invoice for each batch completed. Invoices must be paid within 30 days of their date, either by PayPal or money order. All payments are to be made to KOK Edit, not to Katharine O'Moore-Klopf.
If, at any point during the editing process, either of us believes that the editor-client relationship is not working for us (or if you decide that you will not be pursuing the publication of the manuscript) and wishes to end the relationship, that person will notify the other by email, and I will stop work on the project. Any outstanding invoices for work completed would then be due, and I would invoice you for any work done for which I had not already billed. In that situation, you would not owe me payment for any work I had not done.
Miscellany
You retain copyright of the material in your manuscript if you pay me in full for my editing services. If you do not pay in full, I retain the copyright.
Both you and I will sign and date this contract once we have ironed out its details to our satisfaction.
Our signatures below indicate our agreement to honor this contract.
