We were lucky to catch up with Haylee Graham recently and have shared our conversation below.
Haylee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
I write to give hope. Though my novels and screenplays are rooted in faith, they are not preaching to any choir. Instead, they’re down in the pews, meeting people from all walks of life, asking important questions, and listening to how they aqquired their bumps and bruises along the way. I believe there’s too much faith-based content for those who share similiar core beliefs and values, and not enough content for those who don’t. Our media is saturated with greed, lust, and violence. The audience that pays the ticket to attend that showing isn’t looking for the ‘so-cheesy-its-choking-me’ Christian flick or novel. Sometimes, we are so bent on preaching, that we forget about listening. And if we do speak, we should be speaking to the circumstances that we all face in this hard and messy life: heartbreak, grief & loss, unexpected tragedies, financial struggles, family problems, etc. The mission isn’t conversion, the mission is communion. I want to meet the reader or viewer right in the middle of their mess, hold their hands tightly, tell them they’re not alone and point them to a light and everlasting help in trouble.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am the daughter of award-winning actors Susan Lavelle (Amazon Prime’s Dear Mother) and Gary Graham (FOX TV’s Alien Nation and Paramount’s Star Trek: Enterprise). I am a career novelist who has written professionally for over a decade, accumulating literary awards and nominations at the International Christian Film Festival, 2019 Indie X Film Fest, 2019 CARE Awards, and 168 Film Festival. I have written four Young Adult Fiction novels, am a member of SCBWI, am published in Chicken Soup for the Soul and GoodNews Northwest Newspaper, and have been featured on the Los Angeles major news network, KTLA 5, as well as Voyage LA (Most Inspiring Stories in Los Angeles) and Creativ Mag. In addition, in 2019, our short film “Out of the Quiet” earned 9 nominations at the acclaimed 168 Film Festival, and received over 28 awards and nominations at major film festivals across the country. Recently, we had a second chance at the 168 Film Festival and won the entirety of it with a ten minute short titled “Planted” that I wrote. The film earned the prestigious awards of “The Best of 168 Festival“ “Best Speed Film” “Best Screenplay” “Best Director” and more. We had only 7 days to film the short so to take home the whole festival was an incredible achievement for our team.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Though my novels and screenplays are rooted in faith, they are not preaching to any choir. Instead, they’re down in the pews, taking the hands from people from all walks of life and asking important questions of life, loss, and everything inbetween. I believe there’s too much faith-based content for those who share similiar core beliefs and values, and not enough content for those who don’t. Life is heavy, dirty, messy, and rarely ever black and white… and I believe we can become a little more bent on preaching rather than listening. In the same breath, faith-based creatives should also be aware of the constant regurgitation of media being released that is saturated with darkness and destruction. The only way to combat that is light and truth, and though conformity isn’t the answer, there needs to be some pragmatic understanding that most of the audiences we’re trying to reach aren’t looking for the ‘so-cheesy-its-choking-me’ Christian flick or read. I, along with a few other creative professionals in my corner, are looking to break ground with a wider reach of faith-based content. The mission isn’t conversion, the mission is communion where we can meet the viewer — no matter their race, religion, status, or mess — right in the middle of their darkness, reassure them they’re not alone, and point them to a light and everlasting help in trouble.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Consistency is key. I spent about 8 years not being attentive to my social media presence, or devoting much effort to it at all aside from personal posts. I would write books, release them, and wonder why they were only selling to friends and family. It has only been in the last couple years of my career that I have finally taken that extra step in learning about social media strategies. Really, it’s just all about blocking out an hour of your day, every day, and posting engaging and entertaining content, maximizing hashtags, and commenting on others’ posts, and replying to comments on your own. The biggest road block for me was dragging myself onto Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook and spending more time on my phone than I wanted to. However, I noticed that if I posted regularly, and made the posts more about my stories — rather than just about me — the viewership grew. For my memoir, for instance, I’d take some engaging dialogue from the book and put (underwhelming) animations to it in a short one minute ‘promo trailer.’ I did this by getting creative on Canva.com — it was nothing special, but through some effects, I’d move images and text around on the screen and that seemed to hold some attention. I had to spend some lengthy time making the promos, but it was nothing like the book trailers I’ve produced in the past. I have three full-length book trailers, and that included a cast and crew and several days filming for each. Though that was a smart and creative way to get people excited about my books, it was a lot of effort for minimal return due to not having a platform and presence online. It’s important to build that platform first, and you can do that without spending a penny. All you have to dedicate is some time each day, and find ways to make the most consistent virtual impact with minimal effort. It took some trial and error but consistency nonetheless… and after a couple months, my videos online started to earn thousands of views and eventually, up to 300,000 views. Through this, I was able to land a book agent after 10 years of trying!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hayleegrahamwriting.wixsite.com/home
- Instagram: hayleegrahamwriting
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haylee-graham-419220162
- Twitter: @hayleeWRITES