Top 7 Free Contract Templates for Freelance Writers (updated in 2023)
Choosing the right one is crucial for a freelancer
Freelancing is a great way to earn money and create value. It allows you to earn extra income without any risk. You can work from anywhere in the world while still having control over your own schedule, budget, and speed of progress. Freelancing offers flexibility that can be difficult with traditional employment or working as an employee in another company.
A freelance contract is an agreement between a client and a freelancer. It is just like any other agreement — details are always agreed upon before being signed.
A freelancing contract is a written agreement between the freelancer and the company. It might be hard to understand what you should sign if you are not familiar with contracts in general. Without a clear understanding of what a freelance contract is, it can be very difficult to make an informed decision on whether or not to sign up for one.
This article will attempt to answer some of the questions that may arise when someone wants to know more about freelance writing contracts.
What is a freelance contract?
A contract is a written agreement between two or more parties regarding the use of services, the payment for such services, and rules governing their terms and conditions. There are no specific magic words that should be included in the contract to make it binding, but it needs to be clear and comprehensive enough so that all the parties understand their obligations and responsibilities and that the chance of misunderstandings down the road are minimized.
6 Tips to create an effective contract with clients
1. Clearly describe the scope of work you are will do for the client, the payment you will receive for this work, as well as any other terms and conditions that you and your client agreed on (for example, “all communications are by email,” or “Writer shall send a progress report to Client every Monday).
2. Designate specific deadlines, milestones, and budgets for the work.
3. Describe the consequences of breaking the contract. If, for some reason, you can’t complete the project — what happens? (For example, you need to return the retainer). If the client calls it quits, you may want to keep all moneys paid up to that point and also all of the work you already did.
3. If the client adds clauses to the contract you send them (like a confidentiality clause or a binding arbitration clause), make sure to read it carefully and understand what it says. If it doesn’t feel right to you, discuss it with the client before signing the contract.
Let us see the list of free templates now in detail:
#1. Freelance Contract Template by Hello Bonsai
Hello Bonsai is a free template-based service that allows you to create your own custom contracts from a library of over 100+ legally vetted templates. There is a wealth of different writing contracts to choose from, including freelance technical writers, freelance editors, freelance copywriters, proofreaders, book publishers, and even ghostwriters and social media influencers. Moreover, recognizing that many freelancers and clients work on an hourly pay arrangement, there is even a contract template for that setup.
Besides contract templates for writers, they also have a huge selection of free templates for proposals, agreements, briefs and so on. These templates are for different professions too, for example: designers, marketers, developers, consultants, etc.
In addition to the templates themselves, the page for each Hello Bonsai template also has a helpful article explaining the provisions included in the template and why their significance.
And the best part, Bonsai also offers a complete tool for self-employed writers to manage their business, from new leads collection, scheduling to automated invoicing, income & expense tracking, and even banking.
You can browse the free templates and choose the one that most suits your needs here. (Hello Bonsai is an affiliate: we may make a small commission if you sign up through these links without any cost to you).
#2: Freelance Writer Contract by RocketLawyer
RocketLawer is a law firm that specializes in e-documentary services. With their simple-to-use software, clients can quickly and easily create and edit e-documents that will be sent to their clients electronically.
You can download the free template here:
#3: Freelance Contract Template by Website Planet
Websiteplanet.com is a comprehensive website directory with over 1000 websites listed in more than 100 categories. It was developed by the team of UK based content marketing agency, which specializes in copywriting and web development.
Websiteplanet.com has many features that make it unique. It is fast, user-friendly, and simple to use. Their freelancer contract template can be copied right away(you don’t need to use your email to get it) and you can customize it for your need. Simple, but useful.
You can download the free template here.
#4. Freelance Contract Template by Wise
TransferWise is a payment platform for international money transfers. The company has a lot of interesting stuff it is doing to reach its goal, like building new platforms and launch a new open-source API for the cryptocurrency market that will help easy direct transactions between users of different currencies.
As part of their strategy to achieve their goal, they are creating templates for freemiums that allow freelancers or designers to customize their workflows and generate content by using TransferWise’s services. They have been working on some templates for years, but in April 2018 they launched their first one — the transferwise/freemium template library. It is a very useful site with lots of useful resources.
You can download the free template here.
#5. Freelance Writing Contract by Daniel Mattia
Another simple yet useful template. It covers all the essential clauses that need to be there in the contract. If you are looking for a simple one, you can copy it and edit it as per your requirements.
You can download the free template here.
#6. Freelance Writer Contract by Docracy
Docracy.com has an ocean of legal document templates. You will be amazed to see the list of templates they have. Be it freelancing or startup or developer they have sample templates for all. It is one of the websites you should bookmark for further use.
You can download the free template here.
#7. Sample Freelance Writer Contracts by Kevin Muldoon
This website is the home of YouTuber Kevin Muldoon. He has listed the useful resources that can be helpful for freelancers.
It is free to download and you can find the link here.
Conclusion
Contracts are an important part of the freelancing environment. It allows you to keep your work process and reputation intact.
Contracts are also a good way to protect your work from plagiarism, trademark violations, and other legal issues. Besides, they give you a chance to prove your value in the market by offering free services to clients, while you keep earning a decent income from it.
Contracts guarantee the rights and obligations between the parties and protect the freelancer’s work in case of misunderstandings.
Contracts are used to create a legally binding agreement between the client and the author. It creates a legal basis for the author to make claims, enforce his rights and defend against libel, defamation, or other unlawful actions.
In a nutshell, choose the right contract template that matches your work style and have a great freelancing career.
I wish you all good.
Signup for my weekly newsletter and join 10000+ others on a life transformation journey.
