How to make a contract

[ChristianAndersen]

Hi
I’ve been approached by a novel writer, who is interested in me composing some music for small audio snippets of a book he’s writing along with a theme song for the story.
He wants to have different options open to resell the snippets (including my music), or maybe in the future use the music in an animated movie and different other things.
He basically wants to be able to do what he wants with the music in the future.
He offers a down payment, but then he also wants to make me get some percentage if he earns money reselling etc.
He seems fair in wanting to give me a fair share of any potential earnings he might have on my music.
But right now it seems like things are stranding on contractual technicalities. He doesn’t know how to make a contact that would secure his end, and getting judicial help would probably knock out his budget.
Any ideas?
I have no insight into the contractual stuff.
I’m thinking would it be enough for me to get the down payment and retain my royalty rights in case the project spun off?
I live in Denmark and he is from the states, so I don’t know how the legal stuff goes. But all the legal stuff can be quite complicated.
Anyway, does anyone here have any suggestions on how to creatives can get some work done without stumbling over all the law stuff?
Thanks ?

[Author]

Posts