Ten Principles of Fair Contracts for Authors

Athanasios VenitsanopoulosFair contracts, News

The International Authors Forum (IAF) is proud to release a new animation highlighting their Ten Principles for Fair Contracts. 

The Ten Principles were developed by IAF’s membership to set out the key issues that authors’ contracts should or should not contain. These principles should be upheld when authors agree to the use of their work through publication or production in any form. Fair contracts enable authors to be recognised and rewarded for the success of their work. 

Contracts govern the relationship between authors and their business partners, such as publishers or producers, and are vital in determining the working conditions of both parties. Too often, contracts can be imbalanced to the disadvantage of authors. IAF wants to change this. Fair contracts enable authors to make a living from their work and continue to create. 

The principles have been designed by IAF members for authors all over the world to use to help manage their own contract negotiations and, in the case of authors’ organisations, to easily educate and raise awareness of contract issues. They are also intended for publishers and producers of authors’ work to better understand the author’s perspective. Working together we can ensure that authors’ contracts promote respectable, responsible, diverse and prolific authorship worldwide. 

Watch the animation here

Ten Principles of Fair Contracts is available in PDF format:

English

French

Spanish

Italian

For visual artists:

English

French 

Spanish