If there's one thing that I harp on more about than making sure you use your own contract templates (versus the vendors), it's making sure that you (and / or your staff) know how to draft and negotiate contract language.  If you've been following my blog or have read my books, you know that I believe it is the responsibility of contract and procurement pros to draft and negotiate contract language--it's not the job of lawyers to do that!

With that said, you of course need to buy my Contract Negotiation Handbook: An Indispensable Guide for Contract Professionals as a great resource on how to negotiate terms and conditions.  But this blog entry isn't just to pump my own book.  There are two other books I have read recently on contract drafting that are absolutely terrific resources.  They happen to be written by the same person, Tina Stark (whom I've never met or corresponded with).  The two books, with links to them on Amazon, follow:

Drafting Contracts: How and Why Lawyers Do What They Do

Negotiating and Drafting Contract Boilerplate

I think you'll find both of her books to be jam-packed full of great information (like my books are) that is easily translated into practical knowledge and tools.