Contacted by magazine

katieclampet

A few years ago I used to work with a woman whose sister sold her "heart breaking baby" story to a magazine. She did make quite a bit of money (cant remember how much) but the story was slanted, so she looked like a bad mother. She was very upset, it wasn't what she expected, and it took her a long time to get over it.

Personally, I dont think i would ever consider selling my story, (not that I've got one!!:rotfl:) I hate the thought of my personal & private details beening public, but obviously it works for some people. As another poster mentioned, you might want to consider whether it was a "quality" publication, or something a bit more vulgar & tacky.

katiex

fairydiamond

notsurewhereIstand wrote: »

The rest of your son's life is most important, not the money and not the media raising awareness.
Awareness will have been raised through your son's friends and that will have already been important.

Its my hubby, not my son, we don't have any children. I'm starting to think quite a few people are thinking its my son, which would make more sense as to some of the replies I've got.

MarieMc

When I was 15 I wrote into a teen mag with my life story and they totally twisted my words, missed out huge chunks and made some of it up!
But £50 was a lot of money to me at the time.

They were all lovely and sympathetic on the phone listening to my story but then turned buisness and strict afterwards. Not the best of experiences and I doubt they'd pay you 1k tbh.

skintchick

I used to work on these types of mags.

You can ask for a read-through so they read the story to you before it's published and they will agree to make SOME changes if you're not happy.

You won;t get 5k. lol at the poster who said that.

A health story will be dealt with fairly straight.

They WON'T dig around for dirt on you. Mags don't do that.

If you don;t like the mag that has contacted you, you can always contact one that you would like to talk to - they'd be delighted to get a write-in.

blackcoffee

I had an article written about me on dailymail online, i did the interview over the telephone, i was mortified when it was printed, and demanded it was immediatly removed, which it was with apologies !!

The whole conversation was twisted, and I was realy upset. Im just glad it wasnt in a magazine up for sale, as once printed ...thats it !!! I didnt even realise that half of what we talked about over the phone was on record !

i think if they are offering money, then its obvious the journalist will be looking for a twist.

I also think the sort of magainze makes a huge difference, for example Tesco health section yes ..chat / take a break ..no !

skintchick

blackcoffee wrote: »

I had an article written about me on dailymail online, i did the interview over the telephone, i was mortified when it was printed, and demanded it was immediatly removed, which it was with apologies !!

The whole conversation was twisted, and I was realy upset. Im just glad it wasnt in a magazine up for sale, as once printed ...thats it !!! I didnt even realise that half of what we talked about over the phone was on record !

i think if they are offering money, then its obvious the journalist will be looking for a twist.

I also think the sort of magainze makes a huge difference, for example Tesco health section yes ..chat / take a break ..no !

Nope, magazines don't look for a twist. They don;t work like that. Papers often do, but that's not what we're talking about here, especially for a health story.

And EVERYTHING you say is on the record during an interview. I have no idea why you wouldn;t have realised that.

I know some journos aren't honest, but most are, and I don;t think the OP has anything to fear, from what she has said.

tiamaria

personally i've stopped buying these mags as I'm so sick of reading about kids with cancer and young parents dying leaving their children behind. Enough misery in the world without looking for more.

I'm also quite bored with "my best friend ran off with my man" and "i gave away all my money to my turkish lover" etc.. same old same old..

Greenlight77

I caught the end of a program about Real People mag on TV last night showing how they put stories together.

They do read through the story with the person concerned before they publish it to make sure they're basically OK with it but the editor chooses the title which they try to make as headline grabbing as possible to sell the mags. Generally the people interviewed seemed happy enough with the stories but those with medical stories thought that the angles were slanted more to the human interest side rather than focusing on the medical issues involved.

fairydiamond

We're not putting the story in a magazine. We've decided against it.

Thanks for all the advice on here. We appreciate it.

Lilacblue

Fairydiamond - that's a good decision. As someone else pointed out, there are lots of other things you can do to raise awareness.

A few years my partner and I were approached by a national newspaper to talk to them about the 'miracle' of IVF. We had a photographer come to our house for some portrait shots etc and they did a telephone interview. It was all very much to 'help other people going through the same thing'.

Well! They got just about EVERYTHING wrong, our ages, occupations, medical problems etc. Nothing malicious but we eventually felt really used. They are absolutely your best friend when they speak to you but then you don't recognise what's printed. We didn't even get the promised copies of photographs...and this was allpromised, from probably the biggest-selling daily in the UK. I would NEVER waste my time again.

I'm really glad everyones ok in your family now x