What should a UK copywriter contract include?

A UK freelance copywriting agreement should name the parties, the brief and deliverables, the licence (use, territory, duration, exclusivity), revision rounds versus a change of brief, the fee, deposit and kill fee, credit, who warrants claims in the copy, and what happens if they cancel or pay late. Sign it before first drafts. Commissioning copy does not transfer copyright.

This page is England and Wales first. Copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is UK-wide. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

There is no copywriting-only template on Contracts.io yet. Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under the services agreement. A monthly content slot sits on a retainer. Strategy-heavy work can start from a consulting agreement. If you are sharing unpublished copy before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA or the NDA page sits next to it. Contracts for copywriters is the shorter audience page. What should a UK graphic design contract include? is the brand-job sibling.

Nine blocks do the work:

The 40% deposit and 25% kill fee are examples, not a statutory rate. Write the numbers you actually use.

Downloaded Word templates still travel as attachments. Each redlineredlineA redline is a proposed edit on a draft contract — words added, struck out or rewritten — not a signed change.More in the glossary is a new file. Someone signs v3 while the other side is editing v4. We do not quote third-party template prices. Put the same topics on one shared draft, then e-sign.

What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement compares templates. How to write a contract is the general checklist. This page is the copy version.

Do not email a Word file and hope v4_final is the one they signed. Both sides should edit and e-sign one shared draft.

You do, unless you assign it. CDPA 1988 s.11 makes the author the first owner of copyright in a freelance literary work. Commissioning the words does not move that. An assignment is not effective unless it is in writing, signed. Paying the invoice does not move title.

Copy is a literary work. Section 3 covers any work, other than a dramatic or musical work, which is written, spoken or sung. Section 11(1) then says the author is the first owner. The employee exception in s.11(2) applies to employees, not to a copywriter on a contract for services.

GOV.UK on ownership of copyright works is blunt about commissions: the first legal owner is the person who created the work, not the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing. If the contract is silent, courts may find a limited implied licence for the purpose of the commission. That is not ownership. Silence is how a brand puts a landing page into a paid-ad campaign and then argues they thought they had bought it.

CDPA 1988 s.90(3) is the assignment rule. An IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary has to be in writing, signed by you or someone signing on your behalf. A licence is permission to use the work. It is not a transfer of ownership. See IP licence vs assignmentIP licence vs assignmentAn IP assignment transfers ownership of copyright or other intellectual property. A licence is permission to use it; the author still owns it. In England and Wales there is no work-made-for-hire first-owner rule for freelancers: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11. An assignment must be in writing and signed: s.90. Say which you mean, and when it happens.More in the glossary.

Keep three piles:

• Finals — the named deliverables. Licensed or assigned on full payment.
• Unused lines — options they did not pick. Not included unless the paper says so.
• Libraries — swipe files, frameworks, earlier work. Licensed for this job as pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary, not assigned.

A US “work for hire” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write licence or assignment in English words.

Example

Copyright in the copy remains with the Copywriter. On receipt of full payment the Client is granted the licence in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1 to use the Deliverables for the uses, territory and term set out there. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, publish, communicate or adapt them. Assignment of copyright is not included unless Schedule 1 says so. Pre-existing materials and unused options stay with the Copywriter and are licensed only as part of the Deliverables.

In Plain English: they may use the named copy as the schedule says, once they have paid. They do not own the words. A buyout is extra. Your swipe file stays yours.

If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

Licence unless the client is paying for a buyout. A campaign licence names the channels, the territory and the term. An assignment moves copyright, in writing, signed. “All media, worldwide, in perpetuity” is a price, not a default. Write the grant in the intellectual property assignment clause, and name the uses in usage rights and credit.

Write four licence facts, not a vibe:

• Use. Website, organic social, paid ads, print, packaging, email — named, not “all media”.
• Territory. UK, EEA, worldwide.
• Duration. Two years, until the campaign ends, or in perpetuity.
• Exclusivity. Non-exclusive, exclusive for named uses, or none of the above because you are assigning.

Paid ads, print and a perpetual grant are usually extra on a web-copy fee. Say so. A client who later wants the same homepage on a billboard is buying a wider licence, not collecting a courtesy.

Example

On receipt of full payment the Client is granted a non-exclusive licence to use the Deliverables on the Client’s website and organic social channels, in the United Kingdom, for two years from first publication. Paid advertising, print, packaging and use after that term are not included unless Schedule 1 says so. Assignment of copyright is not included.

In Plain English: they may put the copy on the site and organic social, in the UK, for two years, once they have paid. Ads, print and a buyout are a different price.

Write the job as a list: pieces, channels, word counts, and how many rounds sit in the fee. “Website copy” is not a list. “Home, about, five service pages, 150–250 words each, two consolidated rounds on the agreed brief” is a list. A new audience or a new offer is a change of brief, quoted first.

A working scope answers five things:

• What is in. Named pages, ads, emails or scripts, with a word-count band or a length. A homepage is not a 12-email sequence.
• What is out. Paid ads, a second language, SEO retain, packaging, a brand voice workshop — unless they are on the in-list.
• The brief. Audience, offer, proof points the client supplies, tone, and what “done” looks like. Colour does not start on illustration until the sketch is approved; here, long-form does not start until the outline or first page is signed off if you wrote that step.
• Revision rounds. How many packed rounds sit in the fee, and what a round is. A round is one written set of comments, not a drip of Slack notes.
• Change of brief. A new product, a new audience, a new campaign, or “can it also do the ads” is change control, not a courtesy. See Client keeps adding extra work.

A revision limit polishes the agreed copy. Mixing it with a new brief is how a “third round of amends” becomes a second campaign at no fee.

If the client redlines the limit down to “unlimited,” that is a price issue, not a courtesy. See Your client redlined your contract.

Example

Deliverables are the items in Schedule 1. Two rounds of consolidated feedback are included on the agreed brief. A round is one written set of comments on the then-current draft. Further rounds, or a change to the audience, offer or channels in the brief, are quoted and agreed in writing before work starts. Unused options and working notes are not deliverables unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: they get the named pieces. Two packed rounds. A new brief is a new fee.

There is no default UK right to keep a deposit or charge a kill fee. Both sides have to agree the sums. Write a deposit before work starts, a kill fee if they cancel, a short due date, and that no licence bites until payment in full. For a UK business client, statutory interest on late commercial payment is 8% above Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed recovery sum. We do not print the current base rate.

A deposit of 30–50% on signature, with work paused until it lands, is the usual freelance shape. Longer jobs split the balance on outline approval and on delivery. A kill fee sits next to it: work done plus a named share of the remaining fee if they cancel for convenience. See cancellation and kill fee.

Who the client is then splits the page:

• A business client. An agreed cancellation charge that is really a sum on breach must not be a penalty. Cavendish Square Holding v Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67 asks whether a secondary obligation imposes a detriment out of all proportion to a legitimate interest in performance. Tie the figure to time held, costs committed and other work turned down. A flat 100% from the day they sign, with no link to those interests, is the shape that looks like punishment.
• A consumer. A consumer may cancel a distance or off-premises service contract in the 14 days after the day the contract is entered into, without giving a reason — Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regs 29–30. An unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer (Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62). A “non-refundable deposit, no cooling-off” line does not remove a right those Regulations give.

The longer split is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?.

Payment terms should name when invoices go out, how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30 — a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, and that any licence or assignment passes only on full payment.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest. The 1998 Act does not apply to a consumer client. Do not invent a contract rate that has no link to the statute or to the paper.

Example

The Client will pay a Deposit of 40% of the Fee on signature. The Copywriter will not start until the Deposit is received. The balance is due on delivery of the finals. Each undisputed invoice is due within 14 days of its date. The Copywriter may pause work while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. If the Client cancels for convenience after work has started, the Client shall pay for work done to date and a cancellation fee of 25% of the remaining Fee. The Deposit is credited to that sum. Copyright and any licence to use the Deliverables pass to the Client only on payment in full.

In Plain English: 40% lands before you start. They have two weeks to pay. After a week late, work stops. If they call it off, they pay for what is done plus a quarter of what is left. They do not own unpaid copy.

Those percentages are examples, not a statutory rate. The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Only if the contract says so. An assignment of the finals does not, by itself, give you a right to put the copy on your site. Write a licence back, the credit line, and any moral-rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary assertion or limited waiverwaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary. Confidential work stays off the portfolio until they launch.

Moral rights sit beside copyright. You have the right to be identified as author of a literary work, which must be asserted, and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. Those rights cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by you. An IP assignment that is silent on moral rights leaves them with you.

CDPA 1988 s.77 is the right to be identified as author, including when the work is published commercially. Section 77(1) says the right is not infringed unless it has been asserted in accordance with s.78. Section 80 is the integrity right. They are not assignable — s.94. Section 87 lets you waive them by an instrument in writing signed by you. See moral rights and usage rights and credit.

A working portfolio clause answers four things:

• Where. Your website, social, printed showreel, award entries.
• What. The published finals, not unused options or the rejected route.
• When. After launch, or after a named embargo.
• Credit. Whether you name the client, and whether they name you.

See publicity and portfolio use. If the job is confidential — an unlaunched product, a brand still in stealth — write that the licence starts on their public launch, or on written consent.

Example

The Copywriter may reproduce the published Deliverables in the Copywriter’s portfolio and on the Copywriter’s website and social channels, and may name the Client as the commissioner, after the Client has first used the Deliverables in public, or earlier with the Client’s written consent. The Copywriter asserts the right to be identified as author of the literary work. The Client shall credit the Copywriter where technically feasible. This licence does not extend to unused options or confidential informationconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary.

In Plain English: once they have used it in public, you may show the finals and name them. You have asserted the byline. You may not leak the launch.

If they refuse any portfolio use, that is a price issue. Get that in the paper before you start.

The client warrants facts, prices, testimonials and product claims they supply. You warrant that the new copy is original to you and that you will write it with reasonable care and skill. You do not warrant that their advertising claims are true. Write that split in the warranties clause.

A working pair:

In a business-to-business services contract there is an implied termimplied termsImplied terms are obligations the law reads into a contract even when the parties did not write them down. In England and Wales they come from statute — for business services, reasonable care and skill under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 — or from common law where a term is necessary for business efficacy.More in the glossary that you will carry out the service with reasonable care and skill — Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13. For a consumer client, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 implies the same care-and-skill term. Neither section makes you the warrantor of the client’s product claims.

If they want a matching indemnity for a third-party claim that the copy is not original, cap it and keep it next to the originality warrantywarrantyA warranty is a promise that something is true, such as “this work is original” or “we have the right to grant this licence.”More in the glossary. Do not warrant worldwide advertising-code compliance on a small freelance fee.

AI-tool use is a contractual disclosure, not a CDPA rule. If the client wants to know whether ChatGPT, Claude or another tool drafted the copy, write a yes/no line and what you still reviewed. If you do not want the finals fed into a training set, write that restriction. Do not dress either line up as a statute we cite. We do not claim that contracts.io reviews advertising copy.

Example

The Client warrants that facts, prices, testimonials and claims it supplies are accurate and that it has the right to use them. The Copywriter warrants that the Deliverables, except Client materials and pre-existing materials, are original to the Copywriter and that the Copywriter will carry out the services with reasonable care and skill. The Copywriter does not warrant that Client claims are true. If Schedule 1 requires disclosure of AI-tool use, the Copywriter shall state whether a named tool drafted any Deliverable and that the Copywriter reviewed the finals.

In Plain English: they stand behind the facts they gave you. You stand behind the writing and that it is yours. You do not certify their product. If they asked about AI tools, you say what you used and that you read the finals.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared copywriting agreement, so the brief, the licence and the kill fee are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under the services agreement. A monthly slot sits on a retainer. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing unpublished copy before the deal is signed, the NDA generator or a mutual NDA sits next to it.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary, the licence or IP assignment, the deposit and the kill fee are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, then paid plans from £15 a month — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the copy job in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before first drafts.

Contracts for copywriters is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Contracts for graphic designers is the brand sibling. NDA for UK freelancers is the pitch-stage paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.