ev0ke: You recently launched the Pagan Book News group on FaceBook. First, very neat! Second, why did you create this group? What motivated you?
Nimue Brown: I’ve been a book publicist on and off for years. I’m conscious of how much time and effort authors have to spend trying to get their work in front of people (me included, I’m also an author) and it struck me that building something not publisher-specific to just raise awareness of Pagan books might be a useful contribution to make.
ev0ke: What sort of content are you looking for? New release announcements? Re-releases? Request for reviews and beta readers?
NB: Any sort of book news — releases, reviews, book events, giveaways, offers, et cetera — I’ll fit in as much as I can. I’m also open to Pagan magazine news. It’s probably not going to be the optimal space for
seeking reviewers or beta readers, but certainly if someone wanted a review copy I’d put them in touch with the author.
ev0ke: Can people post in the group directly or should they submit content to you?
NB: It’s a page rather than a group, so I am gatekeeping and things need to come through me. Message the page or contact me directly. I’m not a heavy handed gatekeeper. Anyone looking for a group to chat about Pagan books on should join the Witchlit group.
ev0ke: What are you not looking for in terms of content?
NB: I’m not going to keep posting the same authors over and over, because doing a post or two a day is going to be the limit and I intend to share those slots widely. So, pick carefully before you send.
I also don’t want to overload anyone following the page with too many posts, or too many posts about a single title, so that’s probably the biggest issue. I’ll consider content that might be of interest to Pagans — broadly adjacent topics like folklore or activism — but that’s going to depend a lot on how busy things are. Obviously no hate, no cruelty, and no intolerance. I also don’t want AI books. I hope that if I get that
wrong and unwittingly share something without realising it’s problematic, that people will let me know.
ev0ke: Are there other Facebook groups that you recommend to Pagan readers and authors? Or social media outside of Facebook?
NB: Witchlit is my go-to for Facebook. A lot of groups have rules that make it hard to promote anything, so you won’t find much book-related content on many of them. If you like a specific author, following
their page or newsletter or finding what they do is a good idea. Algorithms on social media sites make it
very hard to see people’s content reliably. If you can get something sent to your email, this is a good way of connecting with authors you like. Which is useless if you’re new to your path, or want to read widely, or not just follow one publishing house.
ev0ke: What other projects are you working on? Do you have any books of your own planned for the foreseeable future?
NB: I’ve got a Druidry and Pilgrimage book in the works at the moment, as well as a couple of fiction projects. For a few years now I’ve been developing books through Patreon support, and then giving a lot of those away (or pay what you want) through Ko-fi.
