to wonder why on earth you'd want to sell your "life story" to a magazine?

[GloriaSmut]

I have to be slightly careful here in case I am outed but the cover of latest issue of one of those ghastly Take a Break sort of mags features a couple who are, sort of, members of the family. The headline alone is eye-watering enough but the story itself is astonishing in what it reveals. None of it actually newsworthy - these are not celebs - but certainly the sort of facts I wouldn't want following me around. The story is not one that could, even remotely, be considered inspiring either so it is difficult to see how any sort of altruistic returns. I realise that you get paid for these candid little titbits but is the modest payment really worth the intrusion?

money

Yes, I know for the money but we aren't talking huge, celebrity exposures sort of dosh here. It's a tiny payment anyway but even tinier when compared against the likely consequences.

Money and attention and to provide a false sense of importance.

Someone I knew whos boyfriend was murdered sold her story to one of these mags, as you can imagine it was a sell out in our wee town! And anyone who knew what had been going on knew a lot of it was embellished and fabricated but she was happy with the money.

I know a woman who sold the sordid story of her menage-a-trois lifestyle and went around showing it to everyone. She had 3 kids at our school and everyone knew about it.

Why would you do that to your kids?

She then applied for a job as the PT school receptionist (job advert read "utmost discretion required". She didn't get it.

A friend who got left in lots of debt by her ex (who stole money out of her account and ran up debts in her name, etc) sold her story to one of these mags - she was having to sell her house to pay off the debts he left her in and the money she got for the story (I think about £500) covered her legal and moving fees, which she would have struggled to pay otherwise. The story was a bit embellished and prob only about 50% accurate, but for her it was worth doing.

Attention whores usually but occassionally people in dire need of cash. It's the ones who read the trash that worry me - id life so dull that take a brrak is entertainment - really?

I can perfectly well understand stories that are aimed at raising awareness for causes and think that stories in the press is an excellent way of doing so. But the story to which I refer is most definitely NOT inspirational. Other than as cautionary tale about clicking the "Spill the Sordid Details here" link on the websites of that sort of magazine!

If it's to do with raising awareness of causes, fine. If it's something that will help others who have been through similar problems, fine. But juicy, gossipy over-spilling for the sake of it? Not my thing at all.

Perhaps they couldn't get on Jezza?

Why do people go on those reality tv programmes, like Wife Swap - sometimes I guess it's to get help with a problem (Biggest Loser type programs, or how clean is your house)

But sometimes you just think why the chuff would anyone do it? Like the mum who said smoking was good for her child because it gave him a stronger heart (Mums Misbehaving) I mean, why? Surely you know you are going to get royally shredded for that kind of thing?

Sometimes people just want to be noticed, for anything, like people who moon when they get pissed.

I was bothered when my mother sold a story to Take a Break when I was a teen - about how my lousy no good father gave her gonhorrea by sleeping with a Russian prossie and not telling her, so I was born with it and could have been blind for life... they changed our names for the story, but photographed us all and it was really embarrassing for me... the money was crap too. If anyone plans to sell a story, go through the online agencies, not the magazine directly. You get twice - three times as much.

One of those magazines had a story a couple of weeks ago abouta a woman being abducted from a supermarket carpark that i shop at in broad daylight, driven away and raped.

I just assumed it must be true but DH was very about it. I googled it to prove him wrong, no one was caught for the offence but she said she reported it to the police but I oculdn't find ANYTHING on google. Surely, surely that could not have been made up? My default position is to believe a woman who says she's been raped, hence me believeing it.

Someone who lives near me sold her story. It detailed why she thought getting a boob job was more important to her than taking her children on holiday.
I really felt for them having to go to school (they were 10 & 12) and having to face other children who may have seen it.

Loads of the more shocking stories must be made up though. They would have been on the news or in the papers otherwise

I've been in magazines about my surrogate pregnancies (although payments always went to charity) to raise awareness but I too can't understand selling negative stories about yourself.

i knew someone who did this - they had a bad experience and sold the story.i really didn't understand why but they said it was to get something positive (money) from the bad exp.

Christ knows why people do this.

I would like to win zillions on the lottery one day. Money good; fame, bad. The point of a decent PR person at a certain level is to keep your name out of the papers / public eye, surely? Especially if you have a dodgy past young children.

I suspect that I have a Bostonian soul. Love the idea of living on the income of one's income's income etc