Life & Work with Lisa Boyle of Goldsboro

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Boyle.

Alright, thank you for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. If you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up at any point during my childhood, I would have said an author. But writing novels never seemed to be a very lucrative career, so when it came time to decide on my major in college, I chose journalism. I graduated in 2010, which could have been a better time for newspapers and magazines, so instead, I went into marketing and public relations. I worked in that field for about six years before I got pregnant with my daughter. The company I was with at the time was small and did not provide any paid maternity leave, so I decided to quit. It was the best decision I have ever made. It allowed me to reassess my goals and be honest with myself. I was a full-time mommy for the first four years of my daughter’s life. I bounced around doing part-time weekend work, trying to find something engaging.

I worked as a cheesemonger for some time (because I adore cheese) and then as an educator at the U.S.S. Constitution Museum in Boston (I had a blast there). But then, the summer before my daughter started preschool, I decided to pick up a manuscript I had started before she was born. About eight years earlier, I had an idea for a book. I was reading an article about these young women in Ireland who were taken to Australia to become domestic servants during the famine. It sparked an idea that would eventually become my first novel, Signed, A Paddy. I read what I had written that summer and decided I needed to start over basically. And so I did!

When my daughter went to preschool, I spent my days rewriting this historical fiction manuscript. I finished in just a few months and then thought, now what? Do I try to get an agent? Try to get a traditional publishing deal? When I started writing the book, I attended a book fair and sat on a panel of self-published authors. I thought it was wonderful! These women had put their books out into the world on their own. And so when I finished that novel, I thought, I can do this myself. I was so impatient! I wanted to share it with everyone who supported me and my writing. I went with it. I started a GoFundMe to pay for an editor and a cover designer. I had no idea what I was doing, but my husband supported me wholeheartedly and was a big fan of the concept of me keeping the rights to my book. He convinced me that I could make a business of it. I would make all the final decisions, work directly with a cover designer, choose my team, and create my own success. So I never tried the traditional publishing route. I never queried agents or anything. I decided from the beginning to be as professional as possible, use as many editors as possible, take their feedback, and run with it.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all! The first book I published was entirely off for the interior margins, but I had already ordered copies for my entire virtual book tour. So those first 20 copies or so went off to these Bookstagrammers who were receiving books from the big five publishers that looked gorgeous, and here is my book, the words nearly falling off the page and into the center gutter. But most of them were just incredibly supportive. They loved the book and have stuck with me since, reading all three books in the series early and promoting them on their accounts. There have been a million things in this industry that I’ve had to learn the hard way. I’ve had to learn the particular habits and standards for readers in my genre and then adjust how I reach readers based on that. What to spend my money on as far as marketing or advertising has been a big one. There are tons of podcasts, Facebook groups, and books that advise on how to do all of this, but at the end of the day, what’s going to work for me is different from the same thing that will work for everyone else.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have a published historical fiction series and am working on a historical thriller. The published series is called The Paddy Series and takes place between 1848 and 1864. The main character is an orphan girl from Ireland who makes her way to America during the Great Potato Famine. The first book, Signed, A Paddy, has won multiple awards, and I’m incredibly proud of that. From the beginning, I aimed to put quality work on par with any publishing house, and those awards confirm that I’ve done that. Signed, A Paddy won the 2022 Eric Hoffer Historical Fiction Book Award, the 2022 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Book Award for superior work by debut authors, and the IPPY Awards, U.S. Regional Fiction, Northeast Bronze Medal. It was also a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, historical fiction pre-1900s. All of these awards are open to small presses, academic presses, and self-published authors. The second in the series, Dear Inmate, was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Top Indie Favorite in April of 2022, and the third in the series, With Great Sorrow, was just chosen as a Barnes & Noble Top Indie Favorite for February 2023.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love academic cities because the people there love books! That’s what I like the best about Raleigh. There are wonderful bookstores, lots of museums, and just plenty of creative people making the city a welcoming place and a place for learning and growing. I also love the weather! After living in Boston for eight years, I was done with the cold and the snow. My least favorite thing is the traffic. But every city has to deal with that these days!

Pricing:

• Paperback books are $17.99 on all online retailers
• Ebooks are $4.99 on all online retailers
• There is a FREE short story prequel available for anyone who signs up for my monthly newsletter at my website

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lisaboylewrites.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaboylewrites/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lisa.M.Boyle.Writes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaBoyleWrites

Image Credits
Annabelle McCormack