If I wasn't so furious I could cry. SHE THINKS 2020 HAS BEEN HARD FOR HER??? Has she had a baby and emergency C section in lockdown with no family help or support allowed and a crying baby 24/7? Has her partner been furloughed and is she worried how she will pay her mortgage? Did her grandad die in lockdown and only 6 people could go to the funeral?? (And I am aware of so so many people who've had it a whole lot worse too) NO SHE FUCKING HASN'T so the bare cheek of CHARGING people money to listen to her DIATRIBE of 'oh I couldn't go to hot yoga' and 'my life was already stuck at home writing books so it's not changed a single bit for me' is OUTRAGEOUS. And she's donating money to charity - ONE POUND???? Surely there has to be regulation on this?? The rest of us have mates to speak to and rant and cry with, yet she is doing this like some dictator broadcast?! She will speak but no one else can. I thought I had seen it all I really did. WHO IS BUYING INTO THIS!!? My receommendation is - pay your £11 to charity and ring your best mate insead.
- Notice
It’s feckin £375!!! Outrageous!
And yeah, I know features editors and features writers - experienced and trusted, who are disgusted by this. It’s disingenuous of her to charge £375 for something her followers will never gain work from. Her testimonials are as made up as her piss poor characters. Features Eds get 250+ emails a day pitching right now… they delete 99% of them, definitely from those they don’t have existing relationships with at the moment. They’re stacked, they’re doing three jobs (plus homeschool probably) and they have no budget. If Laura doesn’t know this then she doesn’t know a thing about the market she’s selling courses for. If she does know this, then it’s criminal.
And yeah, I know features editors and features writers - experienced and trusted, who are disgusted by this. It’s disingenuous of her to charge £375 for something her followers will never gain work from. Her testimonials are as made up as her piss poor characters. Features Eds get 250+ emails a day pitching right now… they delete 99% of them, definitely from those they don’t have existing relationships with at the moment. They’re stacked, they’re doing three jobs (plus homeschool probably) and they have no budget. If Laura doesn’t know this then she doesn’t know a thing about the market she’s selling courses for. If she does know this, then it’s criminal.
I just realised who she reminds me of. Donald Trump! The self-obsession. The over-inflated ego (is she an "author" or is she a "teacher" bestowing her wisdom - from what I heard she does neither very well, and it looks like she's been out grooming her vulnerable wannabe writer followers lately). She's delusional, loud and brash. The awful mouth and tongue remind me of The Donald. The deranged posts. The self-praise. Sending herself love notes and flowers. The cod manifestos. The puffy yet tiny hands. All very Trumpian, non?
Skiddidlydaddle
Chatty Member
Yes! He had a mad hipster moustache didn't he? And it was the greatest love of all for about 4 months until they broke up and she said he was a controlling misogynist and she was moving back to Derbyshire and going celibate. Not extreme in the slightest, no way.
Scarlett30
Well-known member
She was truly fine documenting every aspect of her life until she read some opinions on here that didn’t swell her ego.
I think that was a hard pill for her to Swallow
Bette Lunch
Member
I know three high-profile bookstagram people/authors now who have declined to chair an event for her new book release. They didn’t want to be associated with LJ at ALL (although they made their excuses). And they’re just three I know of. I wonder how many more names turned it down. And whether she knows this. And who’ll take it in the end 
I had a look at some of the Goodreads reviews. A couple of them described Penny and it reminded me of someone else...
Attachments
MY PREDICTION CAME TRUE ABOUT THE DAILY MAIL!!!A bizillion per cent agree with this. When have we ever heard mention of her nan until now? She's not even IN the photos she is sharing of her. Why doesn't she just visit her - she could entertain the other residents with her multiple personalities and accents!I don't think it's ethical really. I wouldn't want my nan's nursing home being talked about like this on social media by some jumped up yuppie who is using it to self promote and sell pulp fiction.
Wait for the 'oh I'm so shocked' face when one of her 'mates' at the Daily Mail picks it up to write about.
My friend works for a publisher and reckons she won't actually be getting much cash for these books she's agreed to write so that's why she's selling her soul and her nan this way.
Very sad.
Ah yes. That will be why. Probably not even her nan
It's a set up job by her publishers - which proves the whole thing was a cynical marketing ploy: "Laura, whose third novel Our Stop is due for release on August 8, went on to explain that her own grandmother 'has a whale of a time' with her five daughters and seventeen grandchildren"
And this quote sums the whole thing up nicely:
"I win best granddaughter, it feels good to help etc etc etc)"
No, it feels good to self promote and to get publicity off the back of other people's money. The "best" granddaughter is the one who takes her nan out for the day or mentions her before splashing her picture all over the net.
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Bette Lunch
Member
I noticed she keeps changing her bio, which doesn't sound like a woman whose high self esteem is "your problem". It was all “I write woke books about love...” “I write modern love stories for people who don’t believe in love...” “I write feminist romcoms...” “I write books where no one needs saving...” (etc).
How about “I writesteaming turds distinctly average books that don’t do as well as I expect them to...”?
How about “I write
Lanavalentine
VIP Member
I do wonder what her finances are like, actually. Quite nosey of me, but she has previously talked a big game about multiple income streams and managing money, but it doesn’t seem to match up with the reality.
Remember LJ pretending her London flat was all hers, and she didn’t have a housemate? Kind of reminds me of her old pal Alice Judge Talbot, who also talked up her finances a lot but was living on her parents property at the time (and ended up allegedly handing over £14k to a potential con artist).
Lanavalentine
VIP Member
Oh right. I assumed that. Along with the fact she has no friends.
Can you not just give us the gist of what was said, or post screenshots with the names cropped off/blocked out? I have no idea where to start looking and it sounds like you already have the info.
This thread needs an injection of gossip since LJW is so dull, and after the recent tease of info which turned out to possibly be Laura herself attempting to clumsily collect user’s emails, I think most of us do not have the patience for cryptic posts or taunting us with information without revealing it...
I couldn’t agree more with the idea that we shouldn’t hold IGers to an unrealistic standard - we are all human after all. Having said that though, influencers who have such a platform must acknowledge the added responsibility that comes with that. Regardless of who you are though, flippantly referencing sexual assault and child abuse is utterly indefensible. I agree- I cannot connect with Laura and her content now, she increasingly strikes me as a fundamentally unkind and immoral person and I take far more umbrage with that than I do her eyebrows or accent. Her content is no longer positive or relevant to me. She needs to spend less time focusing on how bloody brilliant she thinks she is and more time taking an interest in the people around her. Hopefully that way she will become more self-aware, slightly self deprecating and actually authentic. God knows, she is going to have to change something if she hopes to be a remotely decent mum.
Bette Lunch
Member
Well I think she has several aliases
. The person who says ‘Are you able to tell us more about knowing her?’ and asks for more details (trying to unveil hater friends). The person who dropped her Love Square cover when only she/her book team had seen it (trying to generate interest). The person who slates Wonderful U (cause they have beef). The person who got defensive about all stories being similar (trying to cover up she copied that Note book). The person who asked people here to DM her as she had vital intel (trying to set a honey trap). The person who used the phrase “balls to the wall” (srsly, I’ve only ever heard one person use that phrase in real life and it's LJ). And yes, I know her. But I’m not going to tell her more about that 
Lanavalentine
VIP Member
Her Stories continue to enrage me.
Now she’s adding her own caveat to Bryony Gordon’s work, claiming that when you live your life for yourself and do not worry what anyone else thinks, it angers people... they don’t like it.
NO. This is just what happens to narcissists, Laura. They way you live your life “for yourself” pisses people off because you centre yourself in everything.
Everything she does is a chance to show off how brilliant she believes she is, badly disguised as an attempt to be anti-racist/sell rip-off courses/promote her writing etc etc. I mean, does she not wonder why Bryony Gordon doesn’t have a thread here like hers?!
Now she’s adding her own caveat to Bryony Gordon’s work, claiming that when you live your life for yourself and do not worry what anyone else thinks, it angers people... they don’t like it.
NO. This is just what happens to narcissists, Laura. They way you live your life “for yourself” pisses people off because you centre yourself in everything.
Everything she does is a chance to show off how brilliant she believes she is, badly disguised as an attempt to be anti-racist/sell rip-off courses/promote her writing etc etc. I mean, does she not wonder why Bryony Gordon doesn’t have a thread here like hers?!
She's 33? I thought she was older. Which means this bit of the article she wrote makes even less sense:
"It was April 2009. We had been together for almost 10 years - six as a couple, and four as 'friends with benefits’. But as we entered our mid twenties, we gradually grew apart. The crunch came when we both enrolled at different universities, 200 miles away from each other, as mature students."
So at this point she was 22, and does that mean friends with benefits started when they were 12?!
She was all for documenting her life when she could bend the truth and make stuff up, but now she's realising people can call her out she's backtracking. I bet 'Gwen' and 'David' wish she hadn't made a whole load of money by blogging about what is probably a very normal occurance at schools across the country!
Why is she saying that young women are expected to sell their private stories. They're....not?! I know plenty of young women (hell I AM one) and never have I felt that expectation. It's a world of their own making surely? Or am I missing something?
"It was April 2009. We had been together for almost 10 years - six as a couple, and four as 'friends with benefits’. But as we entered our mid twenties, we gradually grew apart. The crunch came when we both enrolled at different universities, 200 miles away from each other, as mature students."
So at this point she was 22, and does that mean friends with benefits started when they were 12?!
She was all for documenting her life when she could bend the truth and make stuff up, but now she's realising people can call her out she's backtracking. I bet 'Gwen' and 'David' wish she hadn't made a whole load of money by blogging about what is probably a very normal occurance at schools across the country!
Why is she saying that young women are expected to sell their private stories. They're....not?! I know plenty of young women (hell I AM one) and never have I felt that expectation. It's a world of their own making surely? Or am I missing something?
Lanavalentine
VIP Member
Honestly, I think it’s because she views herself as special, and she wants to be seen this incredibly inspiring woman who has all her shit together.
Everything has to be a big decision, it has to be a new life path, it has to be her calling and a gift from the universe. She can’t just live like the rest of us, because she so desperately wants to be above the rest of us.
I think she is very narcissistic and therefore grandiose in her feelings about herself and her life. She wants to be Elizabeth Gilbert (another grandiose, attention-seeking narc, in my opinion).
Lanavalentine
VIP Member
Oh of course she does! Add wine expert to ballroom & latin expert (her Strictly commentary!), total foodie (who had never roasted a chicken), travel expert, parenting expert (with no kids), brilliant teacher of English, yoga master, general happiness and lifestyle guru...
Honey_beehave
New member
I wouldn't give a shit as I wouldn't have my name on Google alerts and then make an Instagram post crying over it.
Interesting. I know the Grazia office concur and think she's annoying/grating/flimsy AF - and not the writer she thinks she is. And a friend at Red is less than complimentary (in fact it was she who alerted me to this thread). Interesting how she keeps getting work then. Except I don't think she is, there might be a reason her columns are short lived. And if the new book reviews are owt to go by, that fake author hat might come off too. Hopefully she'll be a nurse next week...