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Ghostwriting contract template for a memoir or biography
This is the contract I use for my own books, also called a ghostwriting agreement, with my name taken out. It covers the money, the stages, who owns the words, whose name goes on the cover, and what happens if either of us stops halfway.
A ghostwriting contract sets out the book, the fee and when each part is paid, the revision rounds, who owns the copyright, whose name goes on the cover, confidentiality, AI use, and what happens if either side stops or the storyteller falls ill. This free template covers each point in 15 clauses, with a plain-English note under every clause.
- Who signs
- The client and the writer. If the book is about someone else, such as a parent, that person can sign as the subject.
- When
- Before the first interview, after the sample page and a call.
- Length
- 15 clauses, each with a plain-English note
- Formats
- Word and PDF. Free, no sign-up.
On my books the fee starts at US$12,500 and typically goes up to US$25,000, paid in four parts. A gift book starts at US$5,000 and typically goes up to US$10,000. The template leaves the fee blank, so it works with any writer.
Not legal adviceThis is a template, not a lawyer-drafted legal document and not legal advice. It replaces the verbal agreement most of this work runs on, so both sides have the terms in writing. Laws differ by country and by state. Have a lawyer where you live read it before anyone signs. I am a writer, not a lawyer. These are the documents I would want in place, written in plain English so you can see what each line does.
The contract, clause by clause
Each clause reads as it does in the download. Type straight into the blanks and tick the options you want (a line with a box is an option: keep one), then download your filled copy in Word or PDF from the bar at the bottom. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
The parties and the book
1.1This agreement is made on [DATE] between [CLIENT FULL NAME], of [ADDRESS] (the “Client”), and [WRITER FULL NAME OR COMPANY], of [ADDRESS] (the “Writer”).
1.2The Writer will write a book about [SUBJECT: THE CLIENT / NAME OF THE PERSON THE BOOK IS ABOUT] (the “Subject”), with the working title [WORKING TITLE] (the “Book”).
1.3The Book will be about [60,000 TO 90,000] words, written in [LANGUAGE].
What it meansName everyone. If the book is about your father, he is the Subject even if you are paying. Put the length as a range. A word count fixed to the last thousand starts arguments about padding.
What the Writer will do
2.1The Writer will: (a) interview the Subject and the people the Client introduces, for [30 TO 60] hours in total; (b) read the documents, letters and photographs the Client provides; (c) write a chapter plan for the Client’s approval; (d) write a full first draft; (e) revise the draft as set out in clause 5; and (f) deliver a final manuscript ready for a copy editor and designer.
2.2Not included unless added in writing: printing, publishing, ISBN, cover design, translation, indexing, legal review of the content, and any interview hours beyond [60].
What it meansThis is the scope. The second paragraph matters as much as the first. Most disputes I hear about start with a client who assumed printing was in the fee, or a writer who assumed thirty hours meant thirty.
Fee and the four payments
3.1The total fee is [AMOUNT AND CURRENCY], plus any GST, VAT or other tax that applies.
3.2The fee is paid in four parts, each against a deliverable: Part 1, [25]% on signing this agreement; Part 2, [25]% on the Client’s written approval of the chapter plan; Part 3, [25]% on delivery of the full first draft; Part 4, [25]% on delivery of the final manuscript.
3.3The Writer invoices each part when its deliverable is met. Invoices are due within [14] days. Work on the next stage starts when the invoice for the last one is paid.
What it meansFour parts against four things you can hold in your hand. You never pay far ahead of the work, and the writer is never far behind on money. Approval of the chapter plan is a written yes from you, so an email counts.
Timeline
4.1The Writer will aim to deliver the final manuscript within [SIX] months of signing.
4.2Each stage has a target date in Schedule 1. If the Client or an interviewee is not available, or feedback arrives late, the dates move by the same number of days.
What it meansSix months is a real number for a full book. The second paragraph is fair to both sides: the writer cannot hold you to a date you made them miss.
Revisions
5.1The Client may ask for [THREE] rounds of revision on the full draft. A round is one set of written comments from the Client, sent together, covering the whole draft.
5.2The Writer will return each revised draft within [21] days of receiving the comments.
5.3Further rounds, or changes to the agreed chapter plan after the first draft, are charged at [RATE] or as agreed in writing.
What it meansThree rounds, and a round means one consolidated set of notes. If your brother sends notes on Monday and your aunt on Thursday, put them in one document first. It is faster for you and it keeps the count honest.
Travel and expenses
6.1No travel is included in the fee. The Client pays all travel at cost: flights, trains, hotels, local transport, visas and travel insurance.
6.2The parties will agree each trip and its budget in writing before anything is booked. The Writer will send receipts. The Client will pay or reimburse within [14] days of receiving them.
6.3Other costs, such as archive fees, document retrieval, translation of source material or transcription by hand, are paid by the Client at cost and agreed in writing first.
What it meansAll travel is yours to pay, at cost, with receipts. If the book needs Nairobi, Southall and a village in Kutch, cost the trips before you sign. A writer who folds travel into a fixed fee is guessing, and someone loses on the guess.
Who owns the book
7.1The Writer assigns to the Client all copyright and other rights in the Book, the chapter plan, the drafts, and the interview recordings and transcripts the Writer makes for the Book (together, the “Work”).
7.2The assignment covers the whole world, the full term of copyright, and every form and medium, now known or developed later, including print, ebook, audiobook, film, television, stage, translation, serialisation and online use.
7.3Copyright in each deliverable passes to the Client when the part of the fee due for it is paid. The Client is not required to publish or use the Work, and the assignment does not lapse if the Client does not use it.
7.4The Writer will sign a separate copyright assignment deed on request, and any other document the Client reasonably needs to record the assignment.
What it meansYou paid for the book, so you own it. In India this clause has to name the rights, the territory and the term, or the law fills the gaps with five years and India only. The third paragraph stops the one-year lapse rule. The assignment deed is a separate template here, for publishers who ask for one.
Credit and byline
8.1The Client chooses one of the following. Strike the others.
☐ The Client or Subject is the sole named author. The Writer is not named anywhere in or on the Book.
☐ The Writer is thanked in the acknowledgements, in words the Client approves.
☐ The cover reads “[SUBJECT NAME] with [WRITER NAME]” or “as told to [WRITER NAME]“.
☐ The Writer is named as co-author.
8.2To the extent the law allows, the Writer agrees not to assert any right to be identified as author beyond the option chosen above.
8.3Portfolio: ☐ The Writer may list the Book in their portfolio after publication. ☐ The Writer will not mention the Book or the engagement to anyone.
What it meansPick one line and strike the rest before signing. Most of my clients pick the first. Some families like the acknowledgement. The portfolio line is separate, because a writer can stay off the cover and still want to show the book to the next client. Your call.
Confidentiality
9.1The Writer will keep confidential everything learned through this engagement, including what is said in interviews, what is left out of the Book, the drafts and the documents the Client provides. If the Client chose sole authorship in clause 8, the Writer will also keep the engagement itself confidential.
9.2The Writer may share material only with people working on the Book, such as a transcriber or a researcher, who are bound by the same terms in writing. The Writer is responsible for them.
9.3This clause does not cover information that is public through no fault of the Writer, or that the law requires the Writer to disclose. It continues after this agreement ends, with no end date.
What it meansWhat you tell your writer stays with your writer, during the book and after it, forever. The part about subcontractors matters. Ask any writer who else will hear the tapes.
Use of AI
10.1The Writer writes every sentence of the Book. No AI tool will write, rewrite, edit or proofread any part of the Book, plan or conduct an interview, research or check facts, or invent any quote, scene or detail.
10.2The Writer may use AI tools only for the uses below. The Client may strike any of them before signing.
☐ Transcription of interview recordings, with every quotation used in the Book checked against the audio by the Writer.
☐ Sorting transcripts by person, place and year, and building a first timeline.
☐ Typesetting and preparing print files after the manuscript is final.
10.3Any tool that receives recordings or transcripts must be set so the Client’s material is not used to train an AI model. The Writer will not add any other use of AI without the Client’s prior written consent.
What it meansThis matches my AI policy: a person writes every word, AI does three chores, and you can strike any of them. Strike all three and the work happens by hand. It takes longer. Ask any writer you are considering to sign a clause like this one. Watch how they react.
Stopping after any stage
11.1Either party may end this agreement after any deliverable in clause 3, by written notice.
11.2If the Client ends it, the Client pays the parts of the fee for deliverables already delivered, plus approved expenses already incurred, and nothing more. The Client keeps everything delivered and paid for, and owns it under clause 7.
11.3If the Writer ends it without the Client being in breach, the Writer refunds any part of the fee paid for a deliverable not yet delivered, and hands over all recordings, transcripts and notes.
11.4Either party may end this agreement at once if the other breaches it and does not put the breach right within [14] days of written notice.
What it meansThis is the kill fee, written the fair way round. You can stop after the chapter plan, after the draft, after any stage, and you pay for what is done. A writer who wants half the fee if you stop is asking you to pay for work that never happened.
If the storyteller or the Writer cannot continue
12.1If the Subject dies, or becomes too ill to continue, before the final manuscript, [CLIENT, OR THE FAMILY MEMBER NAMED HERE: NAME] will decide in writing within [30] days whether the Writer: (a) finishes the Book from the recordings and documents already gathered, with interviews of other people in place of the Subject; or (b) stops, under clause 11.
12.2If the Writer dies or becomes too ill to continue, the Client receives every recording, transcript, note and draft made so far, owns them under clause 7, and pays only for deliverables already delivered.
12.3In either case the recordings and notes stay confidential under clause 9.
What it meansNobody likes this clause and every family book needs it. I write for people in their seventies and eighties, and some of them do not see the last chapter. The book can still be finished from the tapes and from the people who knew them. Decide now who makes that call, so nobody has to argue about it in the week of a funeral.
Facts, people and permissions
13.1The Client will give true information, to the best of the Client’s knowledge, and will tell the Writer about any fact that is in dispute.
13.2The Writer’s text will be original and will not copy any other published work, except material the Client supplies or quotes used with permission.
13.3The Writer will not invent quotes or events, and will flag any passage that may be defamatory, invade someone’s privacy, or breach a confidence.
13.4The Client is responsible for a legal review of the final manuscript before publication, and for decisions about what is published.
13.5Each person interviewed will be asked to sign an interview consent and release form. Photographs and documents from other people will be covered by a photo and archive permission form.
What it meansA biography names real people, some of them alive and some of them unhappy about it. The writer promises the words are their own and copied from no one. The writer flags the risky lines. A lawyer reads the final text. You decide. The release and permission forms are the next two templates on this site.
Disputes and the law
14.1This agreement is governed by the laws of [COUNTRY, AND STATE OR EMIRATE IF ANY].
14.2If a dispute arises, the parties will first talk in good faith for [30] days. If that fails, they will try mediation in [CITY]. If that fails, ☐ the courts of [CITY] have exclusive jurisdiction ☐ the dispute goes to arbitration by a sole arbitrator in [CITY], under [RULES, FOR EXAMPLE THE ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION ACT 1996 (INDIA)].
What it meansPick the country where enforcement would happen. If the client lives in Dubai and the writer in Mumbai, choose one and write it down. Arbitration is private, which suits a family book. Courts are cheaper for small sums.
General
15.1This agreement and its schedules are the whole agreement between the parties about the Book. Changes are valid only in writing signed or confirmed by email by both parties.
15.2Notices may be sent by email to the addresses below. This agreement may be signed in counterparts and by electronic signature.
15.3If any clause is unenforceable, the rest of the agreement stands.
What it meansThe boring clause. It stops anyone from claiming a promise made on a call overrides the paper. Electronic signatures are valid for a contract like this in India, the UK, the US, the UAE and most other countries.
Schedule 1: target dates
Chapter plan: [DATE]
Full first draft: [DATE]
Final manuscript: [DATE]
Signatures
Take the contract with you
Ghostwriting and Biography Agreement: Word (.docx) to edit, PDF to print. Free, no sign-up. Blanks are highlighted. Or fill it in on this page and download it filled.
Know a writer who works on a handshake?
Most freelance work starts with a phone call and a promise. Then the invoice is late, or the scope doubles, and nobody wrote anything down. Send this contract to one writer, or one client, before their next job starts. It is free, it needs no sign-up, and it saves an argument later.
India and other countries
India
Under the Copyright Act 1957 the writer of a commissioned book is its first owner (section 17), so the client needs an assignment. Section 18 allows it, including for a work not yet written, and it takes effect when the work exists. Section 19 says the assignment must be in writing and signed by the writer, must identify the work, the rights, the territory and the term, and must state the royalty and other consideration. Leave the term out and it becomes five years; leave the territory out and it is India only. If the client does not use the rights within one year, they lapse, unless the assignment says otherwise. Clause 7 handles all of this. The author’s right to be named and to object to distortion survives any assignment (section 57), which is why the credit clause is a promise not to assert it. Pay stamp duty under your state’s Stamp Act before signing, or the agreement cannot be relied on in court until it is paid with a penalty.
UK
An assignment of copyright must be in writing and signed by or for the assignor (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 90). An assignment of future copyright works too (section 91). The writer’s right to be named only applies once asserted, and both that right and the right to object to changes can be waived in a signed document (section 87). Scotland and England have different contract law: name the one you mean.
US
A transfer of copyright needs a written document signed by the person transferring it (17 U.S.C. section 204). A book commissioned from a freelance writer is not a “work made for hire” in most cases, because a book is not one of the nine kinds of commissioned work the statute lists. So write an assignment rather than relying on work for hire. An individual author can end a transfer after 35 years (section 203). Contract law is state law, so name the state.
UAE
Copyright is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021, in force since 2 January 2022. Where a work is made for the benefit of another person, the economic rights can sit with that person unless the parties agree otherwise, but a written assignment removes the doubt. Moral rights, such as the right to be named, cannot be assigned or waived under UAE law, so a credit clause there is a promise about how the writer chooses to act, not a waiver. If either party is in a free zone such as DIFC or ADGM, its own courts and rules can apply.
Singapore, Canada and Australia
All three need an assignment of copyright to be in writing and signed by the assignor, and all three give authors moral rights. Australia and Canada let an author consent to, or waive, those rights in writing; Singapore protects the right to be named as author. Use the same template and ask a local lawyer to check the moral rights line.
Questions people ask
Who owns the copyright in a ghostwritten book?
The writer does at first, in India, the UK and the US, because the writer is the author. The client owns it once the writer assigns it in a signed document. This template assigns it stage by stage, as each part of the fee is paid.
What is a fair kill fee for a ghostwriter?
Payment for the work done and nothing for work not done. This template pays the writer for every deliverable delivered and lets either side stop after any stage. A kill fee of half the total for stopping early charges the client for chapters that were never written.
How many revision rounds should a ghostwriting contract include?
Three rounds on the full draft is normal, with each round defined as one consolidated set of written notes. Extra rounds are charged at a rate written into the contract.
Who pays for a ghostwriter’s travel?
In this template the client pays all travel at cost, agreed trip by trip before booking, with receipts. None of it sits in the fee.
Should a ghostwriting contract mention AI?
Yes. It should say what AI may do, if anything, and let you strike each use. This template allows three uses (transcription, sorting, typesetting), bans AI from writing, editing and research, and stops recordings from training any model.
Do ghostwriters get royalties?
Not under this template. The writer is paid a fee in four parts and the client keeps every royalty. A royalty share belongs in deals where a publisher pays an advance, and a family book has no advance.
Do ghostwriters have to be credited?
No. Credit is the client’s choice in clause 8: no name at all, a thank-you in the acknowledgements, “as told to” or “with” on the cover, or co-author. Ownership of the copyright does not change with the credit.
Can a ghostwriter steal your story?
Not under this contract. Clause 7 makes the client the copyright owner and clause 9 binds the writer to confidentiality with no end date. Without a signed assignment, the writer who wrote the words is the first owner of the copyright in India, the UK and the US.
What happens if my parent dies before the book is finished?
Clause 12 decides it in advance. A family member named in the contract chooses whether the writer finishes the book from the recordings and from interviews with others, or stops. You pay only for the stages delivered.
Can I write my own ghostwriting contract?
Yes. A contract binds when both sides agree and sign. Start from this template, fill the blanks, and have a lawyer where you live read it once before anyone signs.
Hiring a writer for a family book?
Send me the contract you have been offered, or ask for mine. I respond within 48 hours, in confidence.