Ghostwriting Agreement

Ghostwriter: [Name] · Client: [Name] · Project: [Description — book, article, speech, etc.] · Date: [Date]

1. Services

Ghostwriter will write [Description of the work] based on Client's ideas, interviews, and direction, delivering [Number] drafts with revisions per the process in Exhibit A.

2. Fee

Total fee: [Amount], payable [Deposit at signing, milestone payments, or on completion].

3. Authorship and Credit

Client will be credited as the sole author of the completed work. Ghostwriter agrees to keep their role confidential and will not claim public authorship credit, [unless a specific "as told to" or collaboration credit is separately agreed].

4. Ownership

Upon full payment, Client owns all rights to the completed work, including copyright, as a work made for hire (or via full assignment if work-for-hire doesn't apply to this type of engagement).

5. Confidentiality

Ghostwriter will keep confidential all information shared by Client during the project, both during and after this engagement, including the fact of the ghostwriting arrangement itself, unless Client agrees otherwise.

6. Fact-Checking

[State whether Ghostwriter is responsible for fact-checking content Client provides, or whether Client is solely responsible for the accuracy of information shared.]

7. Portfolio Use

Ghostwriter may not reference this project in their portfolio or discuss their involvement publicly, without Client's written consent.

Ghostwriter: ______________________ Date: ____________ Client: ______________________ Date: ____________

*This document is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Confidentiality about the ghostwriting arrangement itself (Section 5) is the term unique to this kind of agreement — most other creative work agreements assume the creator wants credit, while ghostwriting typically requires the opposite, so it deserves its own explicit clause rather than a generic confidentiality provision.*