Why is it Opulence for Everyone but the Writers?

I recently wrote some articles for Opulence magazine, all about having money and spending it on high-end lifestyles, enjoying the riches, buying quality items. Opulence magazine began in Calgary, by ClearQuest Media and then expanded to Vancouver and is now expanding to Edmonton. This comes as a writer beware letter. I put out the below letter on Sunday July 8th. To date, thirteen writers have contacted me. One said she was never paid.

"I sent out my email on Sunday and already have had ten people respond. I’ve talked with some of you and I believe (Writer's name removed as this is now public) may know of a few others who have had problems being paid on time by ClearQuest. When I first wrote for them (last fall) I decided I would only write a few articles, then make excuses until I saw if they paid or not.

The only other time I’ve been ripped off it’s been by a high-end magazine for the rich, ironically. I was concerned from the moment I saw a contract that said they would pay ninety days after publication. Not on acceptance and not in thirty days. And their rate was lower than standard. But I wanted to build up my magazine credits specifically so took the magazine as a good place to start.

Communication was sporadic and varied, and in the course of writing a couple of articles for the Vancouver edition the editor changed three times, with confusion happening of course. One article was changed without me being notified at all. The others pretty much ran as I wrote them.

In all, I was owed two cheques. The first one came six months after publication, and only when I threatened to contact my lawyer did they send the cheque. The same has happened with this last cheque. Since I was not receiving any answer to my emails to Sandy, Jonathon and Shauna, I went for a two-step strategy. This was after the monthly invoices where I tacked on a 15% compounded late fee (the first late cheque I did 10%). My first step was to then contact all the writers from the emails Jonathon sends out and find out if it was as I expected.

I knew this would cause a ripple and let them know that I was stirring the hornets nest, that soon all the CQ writers would be rebelling if they weren’t already. I then sent a second letter later on Sunday stating that since I had heard from quite a few writers having troubles that I had no choice but to start legal proceedings this week if I didn’t hear from CQ immediately. Monday, Sandy emailed me and told me my cheque would be FedExed. Today I received it. Each time, the late fees were paid. I’ll give them that.

I put this rather long message here because some of you have told me you’ve had problems for two years, that CQ has said they’re restructuring, expanding, reorganizing, growing, or stretched too thin. Some have heard that the manager and editors are living up to the name of the magazine. Almost everyone has had to nag and bully to get paid the meager amount CQ allots to its writers. Etc.

Because I am now paid up, I’m quits with them. I don’t trust them and won’t write anymore. However I believe strongly in writers rights and I don’t think they should be allowed to do this to every writer who comes along. A couple of people suggested doing a petition and either presenting it to CQ or to their advertisers as that would embarrass them most. I will happily sign any such petitions, whether they go to PWAC or some other site. I’ll be posting to my blog too.

Several things that I think CQ should be made to change:

• Up their pay rate for the grief they’re causing. If they can expand into Vancouver and Edmonton, then they can afford to pay their writers more. Why is it Opulence for everyone but writers?
• Change their contract to an industry standard of payment within one month of acceptance.
• Better communication with writers and accounts department
• Clarity of contracts for writers and editing of articles
• Make them aware of writers’ rights, give them brochures, or whatever from PWAC so they have no excuse in the future."

It's a sad thing when a publication does not exist without its writers and yet over and over, everyone gets paid before the writer, and often better. The JK Rowlings and Stephen Kings are few and far between.