Services Agreement for Copywriters

You did not invent the figure. You could not have checked it. You wrote what your client told you, the way they asked for it to sound. And yet when the claim on the page turns out to be shaky, you are the one holding the draft. 

Most copywriting contracts are quiet on this. They cover fees, deadlines and who owns the words, then stop right before the part that actually costs copywriters money. 

This copywriting contract template keeps going. It is a services agreement for copywriters in Australia and New Zealand, with a proposal you complete for each client, built for the way writing for a living actually works: someone else’s claims, someone else’s name on the byline, AI somewhere in the process, and feedback arriving in four separate emails from three different people. 

What the copywriting contract template covers 

Your client warrants their own claims. Statistics, testimonials, endorsements, qualifications, guarantees, results: if they ask for it in the copy, they warrant it is true and lawful. You are not required to verify it, and you can refuse to write anything you think is misleading, defamatory or infringing. A matching indemnity backs it up. 

A revision round is defined. One consolidated set of written feedback, and your response to it. Refining the draft is a revision. A new audience, a new offer or a change of direction is not, and it gets quoted before you touch it. Feedback that does not arrive inside the feedback period counts as approval, so a client who goes quiet cannot recast the delay as your under-performance. 

Ghostwriting works properly. Moral rights are personal to the author and cannot be sold, so assigning copyright is not enough on its own to let a client publish your words under their name and edit them freely. This agreement takes the consent that actually makes ghostwriting work, with a switch for credited work instead. 

AI is dealt with in two places. Whether you use AI tools and how you disclose it, what goes into a public tool and what does not, and in the intellectual property clause, who owns AI output and what happens when text generated without a human author attracts no copyright at all. Your client also cannot feed your work into a model to train it. 

No promise of results. Conversions, rankings, revenue, open rates. You bring skill and current practice, and the clause says plainly that the outcome also depends on their offer, their pricing, their traffic and algorithms nobody controls, without touching the consumer guarantees you cannot exclude. 

Retainers have their own clause. Monthly allocation, whether unused work carries over and when it expires, minimum term, notice, pausing, and intellectual property passing month by month as each invoice is paid. 

Nothing is licensed until you are paid. The client gets no right to use any deliverable, and cannot publish a draft, until the fees are paid in full. That single line does more for your cash flow than a late payment interest rate ever will. 

One template, two countries 

The consumer law, privacy, GST, copyright and moral rights position is given for Australia and for New Zealand side by side, so you keep the one that governs your work and delete the other. No second purchase, no guessing which statute applies. 

A Guided Edition, so you are not editing blind 

Every clause comes with a plain-English box telling you what it does, what to edit and why it matters, and the optional clauses come with keep-or-delete logic. There is a proposal at the back with worked examples, and a contents page that rebuilds itself when you delete a clause. Most copywriters have it ready to send in under an hour. 

Expand Your Services with Our Specialised Add-Ons 

Looking to broaden your service offerings? Stay ahead of the curve with our specialised add-ons. Whether you want to offer reel recording and editing services or social media content creation, our add-ons are crafted to integrate with your current services, giving you and your clients an edge in today’s competitive market. 

Reels & Recording Add-On: Expand your service offerings to include reels and recording services.  Perfect for expanding your scope of services, this add-on provides the legal framework to offer Reels and recording services alongside your copywriting. 

Social Media Content Add-On: Complement your copywriting with our social media content creation clause. From crafting engaging posts to developing social media strategies, this add-on prepares you to offer a full spectrum of social media services. 

Don't just keep up with the evolving digital landscape; be a trendsetter. Our add-ons are perfect for expanding the scope of your services beyond copywriting. 

About the Template   

Developed by seasoned legal professionals, our templates are designed for ease and effectiveness. Each template is clear and user-friendly, allowing you to customise the essential details to align perfectly with your business needs.  

Bonus Links: For extra guidance, check out our blog articles on... 

Scope Creep: What is it and how to manage it with a Solid Contract 

Navigating the New Unfair Contract Terms: A Guide for Creatives 

How do I deal with a dispute over an invoice? 

What’s included? 

Your template purchase includes: 

• Templates in Word format 
• Template User Guide pdf – Handy hints on how to update your template 
• Single user licence to edit, use and reuse the template as often as you need for your business 
• BONUS: Future template updates 
• BONUS: Video Guide – This video walkthrough is designed to guide you step-by-step through the template, providing clear instructions and assistance to help you successfully complete it with a few tips thrown in for good measure! 

Got questions?  Check out our FAQs below. 

Our Copywriter Services Agreement includes the following key features: 

• Client content, claims and testimonials: your client warrants that the facts, figures, testimonials, endorsements and guarantees they ask you to write are true and lawful, and you can refuse content you believe is misleading or defamatory. 
• Ghostwriting, credit and moral rights: a properly taken moral rights consent so work can be published under your client’s name, with a switch for credited work. 
• AI tools and AI output: defined terms for both, a use and disclosure clause, and an ownership sub-clause covering what happens when AI-generated text attracts no copyright. 
• Results, SEO and performance: no guarantee of conversions, rankings or revenue, drafted so it sits underneath the consumer guarantees rather than trying to exclude them. 
• Drafts, revisions and approval: a defined revision round, a feedback period, deemed approval, and change-of-direction work quoted as additional work before it starts. 
• Retainer services: monthly allocation, carry over and expiry, hours tracking, minimum term, notice, pausing and IP passing month by month. 
• Intellectual property in three layers: background IP stays put, your process, prompts, research and unused concepts stay yours, and the finished copy transfers on full payment. No licence at all until you are paid. 
• Limitation of liability with real carve-outs: a mutual cap at twelve months of fees, with the things a cap cannot lawfully cover left outside it. 
• Feedback, complaints and reviews: a chance to fix a problem before it goes public, without gagging honest reviews. 
• Confidentiality, privacy and data: mutual confidentiality with a residual knowledge carve-out, plus breach cooperation and return or deletion of data at the end. 
• Portfolio, case studies and testimonials: the right to feature your work, carved back for confidential and ghostwritten projects, with a client withdrawal right. 
• Dispute resolution that will not backfire: staged notice, a good faith meeting and mediation, each party bearing its own costs. 
• Customisable Proposal: a field-by-field table you complete for each client, covering scope, exclusions, fees, deposit, revision rounds, feedback period, retainer terms, assigned and retained IP, ghostwriting, portfolio and AI use, with worked examples. 
• Australia and New Zealand: dual wording for consumer law, privacy, GST, copyright and moral rights, so you keep the one that applies. 

Our Copywriter Services Agreement is suitable for: 

• Freelance copywriters and content writers 
• Conversion, sales page and launch copywriters 
• SEO and content marketing writers 
• Ghostwriters and thought leadership writers 
• Brand messaging and tone of voice strategists 
• Email and lifecycle copywriters 
• UX and product writers 
• Copywriting studios and agencies 
• Virtual assistants and OBMs who write copy as part of their offer 

If you: 

• write website copy, sales pages, launch sequences, emails, ads, blogs or scripts for clients 
• have ever had a two-round project quietly become six 
• write claims, statistics or testimonials your client supplies 
• ghostwrite under a client’s name, or want the option to 
• use AI tools anywhere in your process, or get asked whether you do 
• sell SEO or conversion copy and get asked to guarantee a result 
• work on a monthly content retainer 
• want your prompts, research and messaging frameworks to stay yours 
• have handed over a draft and then chased the invoice 
  

then this is the agreement you want in place before the next project starts. 

Writing across several disciplines? If you also offer graphic design, web design or social media management, take a look at our Creative Agency Agreement Template instead.

IMPORTANT  

Purchasing our fill in your blanks templates for you to customise and ensure they suit you and your business needs, utilising our free resources or having a chat with us as part of a consultation doesn’t create a lawyer-client relationship between you and Foundd Legal (sorry!). It also doesn’t constitute legal advice. Please consult with a lawyer for any questions. 

Our templates have been designed to cater to general contractual needs and, in some cases, specific industry requirements. However, they may not encompass all unique aspects or specific needs of your situation or industry. If you require specific terms, conditions, clauses, or provisions not covered in the template you purchase, we strongly recommend seeking professional legal advice. By using our templates, you acknowledge that they may not fully cover the intricacies of your individual circumstances and agree to modify and adapt the content as necessary to meet your specific requirements. We are not responsible for any omissions or the suitability of any template for your particular needs. 

We do offer templates for countries outside of Australia, you will see on the specific template page which country or countries the template is available for, just make your selection! Unfortunately at this time, we are only offering templates for the countries specified.  

Our templates are however customisable for countries outside of Australia, and whilst they are a good base and potentially save you money getting something created from scratch, it would be prudent to have a lawyer in your country to review the template especially if you have any questions.  You get a single user licence and can re-use the templates you purchase as many times as you want for your own business needs! But keep in mind we’re a small business just like you, offering a service and we need more people like you to help us continue to grow - just like you!  So from the bottom of our humble hearts, thank you for making a legit purchase and not sharing!  Use of this Site and your purchase of any digital products or downloading of any free resources, are subject to our Terms and Conditions. 

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