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[Webzine] Laura Hird's Showcase

bloemmarc

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Does anybody know much about this lady who is a book reviewer I think I heard from England?
 

CaitlinK18

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This is her web site:

http://www.laurahird.com/

Just from a cursory glance around the site...the interview/review I clicked on was not conducted by her, but by a Peter Murphy and was "reproduced with permission", ie not original to her site. I didn't explore too far...just a quick Google search will turn up a lot of info. She's had two books published, one with Canongate Press in the UK.

The most concise of her numerous biographical pages says thus:
"Laura Hird was born in 1966. She studied Contemporary Writing at Middlesex Polytechnic. In 1997 she was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer's Bursary to allow her to write full-time. She is the author of Nail and Other Stories (1997) and Born Free (1999), a novel set in Edinburgh, where she lives.



Laura Hird's website includes a showcase of international new writing."

No idea if she's a legit reviewer or not, but she appears to wear many hats. From what I understand the Scottish Writer's Bursary award is nothing to sneeze at.
 

waylander

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Members of my writing group have interacted with Laura - one of them has a review up at her site currently - and I recognise some of the other reviewer names as serious writers. Canongate are a very well-regarded independent publisher.
Solidly legit
 

roger

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She reviews books and posts book reviews on her website. Once you have a book published there is nothing to stop anybody reviewing it. My book was picked up and reviewed by a number of bloggers, as well as in national papers over here. Whether the bloggers could be described as 'legitimate reviewers' or not is immaterial. I couldn't stop them reviewing my book - they weren't sent ARCs or solicited. They bought the book and wrote about it. And actually I was very happy they did. They liked it and their reviews helped me, I'm sure.

But Laura Hird has a very good reputation and is very supportive to writers, so if you were thinking of trying to get her to review your book, then why not? The more your book is mentioned and reviewed in print and on the internet - the better.
 

bloemmarc

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It's not that she wants to review my book, because I am not even published yet. I just met an author from a publisher the who was very interested in me and is reviewing my work, but the publishers also has question marks surrounding it.
The author told me Laura contacted the publisher to review the work, and I just wanted to ask about her, and see if anyone knew about her.
 

CaoPaux

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