Given below is a typical agreement which you can sign with your ghostwriter.

CO-WRITER/GHOSTWRITER-AUTHOR AGREEMENT OVER A BOOK

By this memorandum of understanding, signed this _____________ 2008; both the parties described herein under as PARTY A, represented by ______________, address, _____________________________________ also described as the ‘author’; and PARTY B, represented by ___________, address ____________________________________________________________________________________, also described as ‘ghostwriter’, do hereby agree to all the terms described and given below:

  1. Party A is commissioning Party B to begin the project of writing a book on the subject: _______________________________________________________.
  2. The tentative working title of the book shall be _______________________________________________________’. This title is subject to change subject to mutual consent of both the parties.
  3. The deadline for completion of this book is _______ days after the signing of this agreement.
  4. Party A agrees to pay Party B a consolidated sum of $_________ for the project that will include the following:
    1. Writing the content of the book on the guidelines of Party A.
    2. Getting it edited by a pro-editor before submission.
  5. The fees of the co-writer/ghostwriter will be paid as follows:
    1. 50% advance to get the project started.
    2. 50% within 10 days of complete work submission (irrespective of whether Party A found time to go through it in 10 days or not).
  6. Party B (ghostwriter) is subject to NO royalty or commission on the sales of the book. He is only entitled to the one time fees of $_________.
  7. Party B (ghostwriter) will maintain full confidentiality about this project.
  8. The book will be __________ pages long.
  9. Party B agrees that he will not take the help of any plagiarism, meaning he will avoid using borrowed material in this book exactly as they are found elsewhere.
  10. Party A will own all copyrights for this book, including sale and distribution rights.
  11. Party A will have full freedom to set the retail price of this book, deal with any publisher, and may even distribute it free of cost if she wishes. Party B will have no say on setting the price of this book.
  12. Party A can request party B to make a reasonable number of changes and edits during the period of production of this book and within 7 days of completion of the book.

Both the parties do hereby agree to the terms laid and set above.

Signature

Party A (author)

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Signature

Party B (ghostwriter)

Date:

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