Carolyn McKinney, Glance Magazine PUBLICATION DEFRAUDS FREELANCE WRITERS Overland Park, Kansas

Ripoffreport does not allow the posting of weblinks; however, one can easily find online that the BBB has indeed given Glance Magazine a reliability rating of F.

Furthermore, Glance has at present on its websites content taken from other sites with *no* attribution to the authors.  That is to say, articles are published on Glance's site, no "By Such and Such a Writer" is given, but, by copying phrases out of the articles and searching for those phrases on line, one learns who the authors of these pieces are.  Even in those instances where Glance has included an author by-line, Glance is apparently using the articles in violation of the terms of use of the sites from which they've been taken.  For example, the sites require an republication to include links back to the authors' sites, but Glance doesn't include those links.

Now, for freelancers that want a fuller explication of Glance's CEO Anthony West's cavalier attitude towards writers and the contracts Glance makes with them:

Anthony West has stopped communicating about my complaint with writer's advocate Angela Hoy of WritersWeekly.  Therefore, the last item so far on the official WritersWeekly complaint is that West said I would be paid by March 12, sent no check and stopped responding to Ms. Hoy's e-mails.

However, on March 31, West sent me an e-mail saying "I asked you to prove to me that you have a signed agreement saying that your story was accepted and approved for publishing."

West's notion that I would need a "signed agreement" saying my story was "approved for publishing" implies that I wrote an article for Glance "on spec" with no contract.

Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.  I first signed a general writer's agreement with Glance in mid-2009.  Because that general writer's agreement was vague about a payment timeline, I asked if the magazine would agree to pay me on article acceptance.  They said yes, and that all writers would be paid on acceptance.

At the end of 2009, Glance assigned me an article with a Jan. 30, 2010 deadline.  A new acting editor was in place; before accepting the assignment, in an e-mail I said "Please verify the rate you will pay for this article, and that my payment will be due on acceptance, i.e. not delayed until publication. "  Glance's acting editor responded "We generally pay writers within 15 days of acceptance--which would be around the second week in February. The first issue will be in hand March 2nd."

After reading my article, the editor said "I am editing articles and I just reviewed the piece you wrote on The Plaza, and can I just say, you are the most eloquent writer I have seen in a long time. I absolutely loved it. Thank you so much."

I then made to invoice Glance.  The editor refused to pay me, but said "Our print has yet again been pushed back, thus pushing back formal acceptances. I can assure you that your story is one we're wanting to print,"

In other words, Glance lured me to write for it with the contractual condition I would be paid "on acceptance," but then reneged on that contractual condition.

Glance's Anthony West ignores the "payment on acceptance" contract I had, and thinks he is justifying that by telling me he has to see "a signed agreement saying that your story was accepted and approved for publishing."

His editor, the one that commissioned the story from me on a "payment on acceptance basis" told me in writing that she "absolutely loved" the story.  She later said in writing "I can assure you that your story is one we are wanting to publish," yet Glance CEO Anthony West says I'm not due payment because my story has not been "approved for publication," (in a magazine that has yet to publish a single issue).

Freelancers take note; Glance is not likely to respect contracts you make with it.  You see above how they hoodwinked me into writing for them and then cheated me out of the money I earned.   You see that they have made improper uses of copyrighted materials.  You see that the Better Business Bureau has given Glance a reliability rating of "F"

We are in contact with many additional freelancers who were given January 30 deadlines and told they would be paid "on acceptance" but who have yet to receive their pay.  Additionally, many Glance magazine victims say they subscribed but have never received any issues, nor even any statement as to when they could expect to receive the issues for which they paid.

It should be noted, furthermore, that Glance magazine advertised a subscription sweepstakes with alleged prizes including a Mercedes, $10,000 in cash and a paid trip to Las Vegas.  There is some appearance that the Glance subscription sweepstakes is a scam.  It was first announced in spring, 2009, when the magazine was to launch in June, 2009.  It is now May, 2010, the magazine has not launched and subscribers that want their money back have not received it.  If this isn't an example of fraud, what is it?

We are in contact with one former Glance employee who left because of what she calls publisher Anthony West's "bad business practices."  Another ex-Glance employee has provided allegations that might better define Anthony West's "bad business practices."

That other ex-Glance employee alleges that 1) Glance/Anthony West failed to report their federal witholding for 2008 and 2009; 2) cancelled their health insurance policies but continued to subtract the money for the insurance policies them from their paychecks and 3) bounced paychecks for hours worked (Department of Labor hearings are pending on this last matter).

We have rock solid documented evidence that Anthony West/Glance has its employees make contracts with freelancers, that the freelancers then fulfill their obligations under the contracts and that Glance then refuses to pay them.  Glance Magazine's Anthony West in his communications (and even in his communications with writers' advocate Angela Hoy of WritersWeekly) acts as if he were not bound by the E-Sign Act signed by President Clinton nor by Implied Authority of Contract in contract law.  Anthony West has his employees of Glance issue assignments and contracts to freelance writers, and then, to evade paying the writers involved, he says that his Glance employees didn't have the final authority to make the assignments or to accept the articles for publication.

Any clear-minded freelancer will understand that working for Anthony West, Carolyn McKinney and/or Glance magazine is not likely to end with a timely, or even any payment.

Writers Advocate Angela Hoy of WritersWeekly has received allegations from another freelance writer who claims she was contracted for two articles, completed them, but was never paid.  The same writer alleges that she paid for a subscription, has never received an issue, wants her money back but doubts she'll ever get it.

The fundamentals of the contract Glance violated with me are as follows:

IN A JANUARY 5 E-MAIL TO EDITOR CAROLYN MCKINNEY, I WROTE:

"Please verify the rate you will pay for this article, and that my payment will be due on acceptance, i.e. not delayed until publication."

ON JANUARY 5, MCKINNEY RESPONDED:

"The rate is .60 cents per word. We generally pay writers within 15 days of acceptance--which would be around the second week in February. The first issue will be in hand March 2nd."

ON THAT BASIS, I AGREED TO THE ASSIGNMENT. (NOTE; MCKINNEY SAID "WE GENERALLY PAY WRITERS WITHIN 15 DAYS." HAVE THEY *EVER* PAID A WRITER?)

IN A FEBRUARY 10 E-MAIL, MCKINNEY WROTE:

"Scott, I am editing articles and I just reviewed the piece you wrote on The Plaza, and can I just say, you are the most eloquent writer I have seen in a long time. I absolutely loved it. Thank you so much."

BUT WHEN I INVOICED GLANCE ON FEBRUARY 19, MCKINNEY, REFUSING TO PAY ME SAID:

"Our print has yet again been pushed back."

GO BACK FOR REFERENCE TO MY E-MAIL FROM JANUARY 5. I SAID "PLEASE VERIFY THAT MY PAYMENT WILL BE DUE ON ACCEPTANCE, I.E. NOT DELAYED UNTIL PUBLICATION." SHE DID VERIFY THAT, BUT LATER VIOLATED THIS CONTRACT TERM. HOW MUCH CLEARER COULD IT POSSIBLY BE THAT GLANCE VIOLATED THE CONTRACT I MADE WITH IT? ALSO IN HER FEBRUARY 19 E-MAIL, MCKINNEY SAID:

"I can assure you that your story is one we're wanting to print,"

OBVIOUSLY, IF I TOOK THIS TO SMALL CLAIMS COURT, THERE WOULD BE A JUDGEMENT IN MY FAVOR.