Round and round it goes. Image © Jain Lemos.
I am often sent contributor agreements for comment and my brain tends to glaze over, too. A lot of contracts are confusing and use contradictory language, usually because the versions have been hacked and saved then modified and re-saved and the result is a misleading document, often with bad formatting, too!
Some red flags to watch for include:
- Fees to process and upload your materials to the agent’s database for sale to third parties. Often, they say there are no fees to do this but the phrase “processing fees” appears in another section.
- Exclusivity and automatic renewal clauses. Fine, but then there is a free and often long term continuation period of usage after the end of the contract term—all justified because of the large processing fees invested by the agency upfront. If you want out, you should be able to get out relatively soon.
- Exclusivity, except for your own purposes. That needs to be defined very specifically to make sure your “own purposes” means you can earn revenue from the materials outside the agency. Are they saying you can only use your content for your own marketing and portfolios? Will you be able to sell or license your content directly? What about similar work?
- Bi-annual statements are becoming more typical. Try to get quarterly terms, especially for new agencies, the ones who need more time to recoup their investment! So that is tricky but if you have a track record of strong sales it’s a good negotiation point. If they insist on bi-annual payments, then insist on monthly sales numbers to keep tabs on things. In today’s world you should be seeing real-time sales reports anyway.
- Agent’s name only on materials submitted to their customers/third parties. I just don’t like it. They should always provide and remain transparent with your name as copyright holder, even if the eventual license doesn’t require attribution. Maybe they don’t want their buyers to know your name to prevent direct sales. Go back up two bullet points.
- Liability issues are always dicey and probably require a lawyer’s review. They are going to want you to die on your sword for any misuse their clients make in the application of your work.
And just for distraction purposes, did you know that copyright protections have expired on nearly all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s works? Well, maybe not just yet.