Guideline

These guidelines aim to provide a helpful framework for negotiations surrounding the commissioning of work from professional freelance critics and writers. Endorsed by the AICA-UK Executive Committee in 2025, the document sets out points to be discussed by writers and commissioners and offers recommended rates of remuneration for AICA-UK members and others.

Commissioning and deadline

The terms and conditions of a commission should be expressed clearly in writing, with details of the nature and length of the commissioned text, the number of any images, the deadline and agreed payment. Notification and commissioning should take place at least one month in advance of when a text is due; for texts longer than 1,500 words, at least two months. Commissions with shorter notice should offer a higher rate of remuneration. All necessary research material should be provided within a week of commission. This should include contact information for artist(s), any relevant images, videos, and relevant publications that are within the commissioner’s possession. A style sheet also needs to be provided at the point of commissioning.

Research costs

Travel, accommodation and agreed rates of subsistence should be covered by commissioner for any necessary research trips (studio, gallery and site visits outside of the author’s city of work). The costs of any necessary purchases (e.g. exhibition catalogues) should also be agreed and covered, if necessary.

Copyright

Authors are the legal owners of the copyright in their texts, unless and until they agree otherwise. Sometimes, however, a commissioner might assume that there is an implied licence allowing the commissioner to use the work for the purpose for which it was commissioned, even if this was not specified in a written contract or verbal agreement. We therefore recommend that freelance authors routinely assert their rights over their intellectual property by adding the copyright symbol followed by their name at the top or bottom of their writings. Often, however, it is a precondition of publication that authors assign their copyright to the publisher. In such cases we recommend that authors consider instead exploring the use of exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. The former assigns the use of the author’s text to just one user; the latter allows the author to assign the use of the text to more than one user. In both cases, the author retains copyright in the work. More generally, any contract or agreement should make it clear how the author’s text will be used and potentially re-used in the future, in various media. Authors should also consider whether they might wish to republish the text, before or after editing, on their own websites and negotiate this accordingly with their publishers, undertaking to credit the original publications.

Copyright is a complex field and UK-based writers may therefore wish to consult the governmental guidelines published by the Intellectual Property Office.

Editorial principles

Editors need to show respect for their authors and for the integrity of their texts; equally, authors should respect the expertise and requirements of editors.

Authors need to undertake diligent research to ensure that all statements in their texts purporting to be factual are true to the best of their knowledge. They will also decide on the nature and level of contextualising references and points of discussion to include.

Authors agree to work collaboratively with any copyeditor employed by the commissioner regarding house style, grammar, spelling and narrative trajectory. Arbitrary re-wording or modifying content is not typically within the copyeditor’s remit; any suggested changes to content should be raised with the author and approved.

Authors should decide on what artworks and (where appropriate) what contextualising artworks are to be cited. The maximum number of comparative images that can be reproduced should be agreed at the point of commission. Acquiring these images and permissions to use them is typically the responsibility of the commissioner, who remains responsible for the final selection. Where selected comparative images prove too costly or unobtainable, possible replacements need to be discussed with authors.

All changes made to the text must be agreed to by authors before publication. Authors should be invited to check and approve translations of their texts. All later re-uses of an author’s text in full or in part, in whatever media, need to be approved by the author.

Payment

Currently many commissioning bodies and publications offer fees that can be considered honorary, at best, rather than reflective of the skills, time and experience required by the task of writing about art. The rates paid by the art or national press may be based on current market values but do not reflect in any way the economic realities faced by individuals seeking to make a living from their work and should not be taken as a barometer of how much art writers should be paid.

We therefore call on commissioners to review their budgets and pay fees that acknowledge the work and specialist skills required for writing about art, bearing in mind, too, that all fees are subject to taxation and need proportionally to cover holiday and sick pay.

When writers negotiate their own remuneration, they need consider many factors including the proposed length of text, the type of research required, the size of the potential readership and the commercial or educative aspects of the commissioning body, as well as their own status and track record as a writer. They should consider whether to ask to be paid by the word or with a flat fee based on the factors listed above. They may also consider requesting an advance of 50% of their fee before undertaking the work.

Recognising the economic realities faced by art writers, as well as the skills and labour involved in this work, we propose the following guidelines for those negotiating their own rates for commissioned pieces of writing:

Critical texts, reviews or articles in for-profit publications:

• Up to 500 words: a minimum payment of £2 to £2.50 per word
• Up to 1,000 words: a minimum payment of £2.00 per word
• Up to 2,500 words: a minimum payment of £1.50 per word
• Over 2,500 words: a minimum payment of £1 per word

Essays in books or catalogues, drawing on original insights and research, in for-profit publications:

• Shorter essay (up to 3,000 words): to be negotiated on a scale ranging from £2,000 to £4,000
• Longer essay (from 3,000 words): to be negotiated on a scale beginning at £4,000

Fees for not-for-profit publications, including charitable organisations and much academic publishing:

Many not-for-profit publications exist by paying nothing or very little to their contributors and the decision to accept this sort of work is a matter for the individual author.

Other activities (e.g. lecture, jury panel, mentorship):

• To be negotiated using a recommended scale beginning at £300 for a short appearance and beginning at £600 per day for a more demanding role.

Payment for texts should be made within one month of the submission of the invoice, whether or not text has been or will be published. Authors may choose to stipulate in their agreements an additional fee for late payment.

If there are specific taxes in the commissioner’s country that need to be deducted before payment, the amount needs to be disclosed and calculated when the fee is being negotiated, prior to its finalisation. If the commissioner is based outside the writer’s country of residence, the commissioner should pay any bank fees associated with the payment. These should not be deducted from the author’s fee.