A reason to dislike Maple Leaf magazine

Discussion Open Forum
1

If any of you saw the last issue of Maple Leaf magazine (which is the magazine of the Canada Society of Taiwan edited by Noah Buchan and some other person) and saw my article on the Taiwanese criminal trial system and enjoyed the article…please understand that I did not get paid for that article and I got shorted $500 NT on my previous article I did for them.

If you are a writer, my advice, based on my experiences with them, is do not write for them and do not support any of their corporate sponsors.

And here is the wonderful chronology of events that leads to that conclusion:
Noah Buchan does not answer emails, no matter how many times you email him and how long you wait; although he is happy to take your words and slap them in the magazine.
To get my money the last time I had to send a postal letter to the head of the Canadian Trade Office.
He told the head of the Canadian Society, a person named Jacques van Wersch, to fix the problem and I presume Jacques told Noah to get his shit together.
So after that manhunt, Noah finally emails me. We get together and he gives me the blessed two copies of the rag and the money envelope.

Guess what, they fucking short me $500 NT. Now to be fair Noah confesses via email after I am already home. Now most taxi rides run around $200NT one way (I live in San Chung) so if I want to get my money from the dick brained editor I spend $400 NT to make $500 ( not a great profit).

So what I tell him is ( I quote my own email to him)
Let us do it this way, when the new issue comes out we can get together at Starbucks and you can give me the bonus bucks and a couple of copies of the new issue.
On a side note—a friend of mine was complaining to me that your partner, Donovan, has picked up the habit of not answering emails…
Whatever…let me know when the new edition is out.
take care,
Brian

So what happens next?
Of course Noah does not get in touch with me when the magazine comes out. So I gotta chase him again. But by now—I am fucking fed up with Noah the useless editor and I am thinking to myself, let us see, should I let them short me again or just tell them to keep the god damn money.

I told him to keep his fucking money. But the moral of the story is:

  1. Do not write for Maple Leaf magazine unless you want to be treated like shit and have your words stolen.
  2. And if the Canada Society ever asks me for anything you can pretty much guess the answer to that will be.

Yours in California-Canada Friendship,
Brian the ex-Maple Leaf writer.
p.s I could go through channels to complain about this but the President of the Canada Society seems to change every ten seconds and I do not want to bother the head of the trade office again. I offer this as constructive criticism for Maple Leaf and as a warning to other writers.

2

Ripped off in the worid of small time magazines?
Wow…there’s a surprise…/wise-crack.

Sorry Brian…I think you’re a bit too long in the tooth and experienced to be all that excited about this.
You obviously know the dipwad you’re dealing with.
Its time for the “hand me the manuscript while I take the money from your other hand” gambit.
No money - no manuscript.
Frankly, "editors’ like these are NT$10.00 a dozen. They have nothing and really need contributors like yourself to look legit.
Thats the bottom line.

3

Tainan Cowboy,
Yeah, yeah, you are right about picking my venues more carefully. But I got started with Maple Leaf under the old editor, a guy named Dean. Dean was outstanding. He answered emails, kept his commitments, and paid the writers before publication! Part of that I presume was that Dean himself was in the word business and knew how to act like a professional. Then we get Noah the Useless. It was the Dr. Jeckel/Mr. Hyde contrast that drove a certain amount of my fury.

In any event you advice is good and another friend of mine was scolding me for messing around with the non-established magazines. I really ought to keep to the books and the three proven venues I regularly deal with (i.e. Topics magazine, Taiwan Review and the Taiwan Bar Journal) they all pay on time, no hassle.

Okay then, dinner time in gangster San Chung,
Take care,
Brian

4

Brian -
Thanks.
If we ever meet , ask me to tell you the story of “The most beautiful magazine I ever had pictures and stories in.”
It should be a “Lessons Learned” for every aspiring/journeyman photog/journo.

5

[quote=“brianlkennedy”]
the President of the Canada Society seems to change every ten seconds[/quote]

You can say that again–I don’t think jacques is the prez anymore.

BTW, my favorite magazine rip off story is the Taiwan Review–they pay less for articles written by foreign writers in Taiwan than articles written by foreigners living abroad. Just don’t tell them you are in Taiwan and you’ll get paid more!

6

man, if it’s not taiwanese cheating us,now it US cheating us. foriegners who cheat other foreigners are really scum.

7

You know, I agree. At least locals have the excuse of thinking all whitey are rich. But a LaoWai cheating a LaoWai actually KNOWS that this stereotype is bogus.

8

Watch out for Jeane Huang’s “Fountain” magazine, too
stuffed me royally this month
this, after saying how, having lived abroad she was “different from other Taiwan editors”
well Jeane, you ripped me off for more than any other, so yes, you are different, you’re meaner and less professional.

9

Hey Brian,

I read your article re the judiciary in TOPICS last week. Nice work.

10

I can top that, Brian.
I was stiffed by The Museum of World Religions in Taiwan for editing work I did.
Someone will surely rot in some sort of hell for that…

11

By coincidence, i also worked for the MWR (or maybe we all have).

An interesting story: they are the only client i have forced to pay me in advance. They were always late for meetings, 30 minutes to one hour, so i said “put NT$XX,XXX in my account and then we can talk. If you are late, i will deduct NT$YYY per hour.”
They said “you only care about money.”
They were never late again. I said, “now, who is it cares about money?”

(I worked for them for a couple of years after that; they have a “unique” way of running things, certainly, which could be frustrating–“no hair, good; have hair, bad”–but i’m not sure they are on their way to hell.)

12

Interesting thread.

Is this “Noah Buchan” the same Noah Buchan who is a staff reporter for the Taipei Times?

13

The only time I haven’t got paid for an article was when the editor/owner of the magazine in question (an obscure US publication) got arrested for cocaine dealing…

14

:laughing: Yeah, I did too. I don’t think I’ll ever work for a religious group again. :loco: