The publishing contract
Article 58 defines it like this: "By the publishing contract the author or their successors assign to the publisher, in return for financial compensation, the right to reproduce the work and the right to distribute it. The publisher undertakes to carry out these operations at its own expense and risk, on the agreed terms and in accordance with this law."
It is an assignment of rights, not employment: the author remains the author, and the publisher bears the cost of producing and distributing the work. That is why Royal Decree 607/2026, which governs the special employment relationship of artists in the performing, audiovisual and musical arts, does not regulate this contract.
The law excludes future works from this contract. Commissioning a work is not a publishing contract, but whatever is paid for it is treated as an advance on the rights from the edition, if one goes ahead (Article 59).
Rules for every assignment of rights
Articles 43 to 48 apply to any assignment of rights, including a publishing assignment.
- Limits of the assignment (Article 43). The assignment is limited to the right, the modes of exploitation, the duration and the territory that are specified. If no duration is stated, the assignment lasts five years, and if no territory is stated, it is limited to the country where it is made. The assignment of all the works the author may create in the future is void, as are clauses by which the author undertakes not to create a work. If the modes of exploitation are not specified concretely, the assignment is limited to what necessarily follows from the contract and is indispensable for its purpose. It does not extend to modes of exploitation that do not exist or are unknown at the time of assignment.
- Authors aged 16 and 17 (Article 44). "Authors under eighteen and over sixteen who live independently with the consent of their parents or guardians, or with the authorisation of the person or institution responsible for them, have full capacity to assign exploitation rights."
- In writing (Article 45). Every assignment must be in writing. If the other party does not comply after a formal demand, the author may choose to terminate the contract.
- Remuneration (Article 46). An assignment for payment gives a right to a proportional share of the income from exploitation. A lump sum may be agreed only in specified cases: when income is very difficult to determine, when the work is used incidentally or as a non-essential element of another, and, for the first or only edition of previously unpublished works, in several situations, including the illustration of a work.
- Review (Article 47). If there is a manifest disproportion between what the author was paid and the assignee's later income, the author may ask for a review and, failing agreement, go to court. This can be done within ten years of the assignment, unless there is an express agreement, a collective agreement or a sector agreement providing a review procedure.
- Exclusivity (Article 48). It must be granted expressly. It gives the assignee the power to exploit the work to the exclusion of others, including the author.
Content of the contract (Articles 60 to 62)
Article 60 says the contract must be in writing and state in all cases:
- Whether the assignment is exclusive.
- Its territory.
- The maximum and minimum number of copies in the edition (print run).
- How the copies are distributed, and the copies reserved for the author, for reviewers and for promotion.
- The author's remuneration.
- The deadline for putting the first edition into circulation, which cannot exceed two years from the date the author delivers the work in a suitable condition.
- The deadline by which the author will deliver the original.
Article 61.1 is blunt: "A contract not formalised in writing shall be void, as shall one that does not state the particulars required in points 3 and 5 of the preceding article." In other words, the contract is void if it is not in writing or if it does not set the number of copies and the remuneration. If the deadline for putting the work into circulation or for delivery is missing, the parties may oblige each other to remedy it, and if they cannot agree a judge will do so.
If it is an edition in book form, which is usual for a comic, Article 62 adds three points: the language or languages of publication, the advance, if any, that the publisher grants, and the forms of edition and the collection it will belong to. If no language is stated, the publisher may publish only in the original language.
Article 63 exempts, among others, prologues, epilogues, presentations, commentaries and illustrations of other people's works from the two-year deadline.
Obligations of each party (Articles 64 to 67)
The publisher must, according to Article 64:
- Reproduce the work as agreed, without changes the author has not consented to, and with the author's name or mark on the copies.
- Submit the print proofs to the author, unless otherwise agreed.
- Distribute the work within the agreed deadline and on the agreed terms.
- Ensure continuous exploitation and commercial promotion in line with the customs of the sector.
- Pay the stipulated remuneration and, if it is proportional, render at least one statement of account a year, as well as an annual certificate of manufacture, distribution and stock, with the supporting documents the author requests.
- Return the original to the author once printing is finished.
Under Article 65, the author must deliver the work in proper form and on time, correct the proofs and, under point 2, "answer to the publisher for the authorship and originality of the work and for the peaceful exercise of the rights assigned." In my view, that means that if your comic includes other people's characters or images without permission, the risk towards the publisher is yours. More on that risk in Fan art: what you can do with other people's characters.
During proof correction you may make the essential changes, provided they do not alter the character of the work or substantially raise the cost of the edition (Article 66). The publisher may not sell the edition off as remainder stock within two years of its release without your consent, and must then notify you: you may buy the copies or, if you are paid proportionally, receive 10% of the amount invoiced. If it decides to destroy them, you may demand that it hand them over to you free of charge (Article 67).
Termination and expiry (Articles 68 to 70)
Under Article 68, the author may terminate the contract, without prejudice to compensation, in these cases, among others:
- If the publisher does not produce the edition within the agreed deadline and on the agreed terms.
- If it fails, despite the author's express request, to submit the proofs, ensure continuous exploitation, or pay and render accounts.
- If it sells the copies off as remainder stock or destroys them without complying with Article 67.
- If it improperly assigns its rights to a third party.
- If, where several editions are planned and the last one is out of print, it does not produce the next within one year of the author's request. An edition is considered out of print when fewer than 5% of the copies remain unsold and, in any case, fewer than 100.
The contract ends, among other causes, when the agreed term expires, when all the copies are sold, after ten years from the assignment if the remuneration was agreed solely as a lump sum and, "in any case", fifteen years after the author made the work available to the publisher (Article 69).
Once the contract has ended, the publisher may sell its remaining copies for three years, and the author may buy them at 60% of their retail price or exercise a right of pre-emption (Article 70).
Checklist before signing
This list turns those rules into a practical review of the contract.
- Is it in writing, with the maximum and minimum number of copies and the remuneration?
- Does it say whether the assignment is exclusive, in which territory, for how long and for which modes of exploitation? If it does not, the limits of Article 43 apply.
- Is the remuneration proportional, with an advance and an annual statement of account, or a lump sum? What percentage, and on what basis?
- When must the first edition come out, and when must you deliver the original?
- In which languages will it be published, and in which collection?
- What rights do you keep over adaptations, translations and derivative products?
- Can you terminate the contract if the publisher does not publish or does not account to you?
- Which law and which court govern the contract, if the publisher is foreign?
Points requiring clarification
- Whether a comic fits within the "illustration of a work" in Article 46.2.d.4.º, which allows a lump sum for the first edition of previously unpublished works. The article does not define this case, and not every comic necessarily fits within it. I have not found case law.
- How these articles apply to a contract with a foreign publisher. It depends on which law governs it.
- Model contracts and rates from illustrators' associations: they exist, but I have not been able to read them.
Itineraries
I am going to sell or exhibit
If you publish on a platform before you have a publisher, see How to publish a webcomic without relying on a platform, because its terms also assign rights. And if you are going to print, see Preparing a comic page for print: bleed, margins and resolution.
An open conversation
This guide goes through the articles of the law and leaves open what depends on each contract. If you work in publishing or intellectual property advice and can contribute a model clause, a ruling or a model contract, you can write to me.
Sources
Verified on 30 October 2026 against the Intellectual Property Code of Spain's official gazette (BOE), edition updated to 7 October 2026.