We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diana Elliot Graham. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diana below.

Hi Diana, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I wrote started writing my first book in February of 2022. At the time, I had no idea if it would actually become anything more than a google doc that stayed buried in a folder I would forget about.

The idea to write the book was encouraged by a friend. She herself is an indie author, and we bonded over a love of romance novels. As you do with friends, you reminisce, you brainstorm. And as we were talking about romance novels, breakups, and the traditional happily ever after, the idea for a different type of romance novel was born.

Now, I’m not the first person to come up with the idea for a love story crafted around a second chance at love, but the more I thought about it and all the classic romance novels I read, I felt more and more inspired to write something different.

Writing a book, or committing to anything where you’re using your own emotions to power it’s progress, requires conditions that allows for it. But the most important conditions were the ones I needed to craft for myself. Setting aside time, daily, committing to writing.

I began to treat it as a commitment, that telling this story was something once I started I would persist through regardless of what else was going on. That was the first milestone. Writing it. Then, I set another milestone. Then another.

How did I know this was a worthwhile endeavor? I didn’t. I had to decide early on that what made this worthwhile was telling the story.

Why did I feel I could succeed? I set a standard of success for myself that wasn’t purely based on financial metrics. This is an incredibly privileged position to take, but it’s the truth. When I wrote my first novel, When We Were, the goal for success was not to support myself as an author. Instead, my goal for success was initially getting 100 people (I didn’t know) to read it. One hundred people came and went in the first few days, and then a month later it was 1000. When you put a book on Kindle Unlimited, you are paid by page turn. Its a fraction of a penny, so the financial gain from it was not what I focused on. However watching that number grow from a few hundred page turns the first day, to now millions, remains an incredible feeling of success.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I affectionately call myself the “Accidental Author” because it really does feel like that sometimes.
I don’t provide services in a way of being a craftsperson or tradesmen. My services could be more classified as nostalgic and emotional story-telling.

One of the most insane experiences for me is the response I receive from a reader who was expecting more of a classic-romance novel, but reach out to me with gratitude for providing them closure. Reading is such an intimate experience. We can so easily lose reality in novels while finding ourselves. I suppose that’s the service I provide.

If you’re looking for a Rom-Traum read, with a sprinkling of spice, and a bit of humor. I’m your gal.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My audience is still relatively small by social media standards.

Instagram I treat as more of friendly-engaged closed space. I don’t post in a way that I am trying to build the volume of followers but use it to chat with readers.

Tiktok has been incredible. However I have found the views on posts more impactful than followers. Focusing on posting content like book teasers generates readers even if it does not translate to a “follower.”

Advice is consistency and persistence. Tiktok has a ripple effect… One video might get 200 views, which might encourage someone to read your book. ( Or buy/source/request your service) And that one person might recommend it to another five people, and so on and so on. Social media isn’t just about collecting followers to build an audience, but encouraging your audience to form a community. And with a book… there’s nothing like that feeling of reading something and wanting to talk about it.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The community that has been built around this thing I did. I’m constantly in awe of it. When readers first formed a discord to be able to chat, to seeing them reference my book as the thing that “trauma bonded” them, it’s the most rewarding thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dianaelliotgraham.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianaelliotgraham/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dianaelliotgraham

Image Credits

Rebekah Noel Photography