Interview with Marcia K. Washburn

Marcia K. Washburn, author of "Homemade Convenience Foods", is a teacher of teachers. She helps parents, homeschoolers, and musicians do their jobs more effectively and efficiently through books, articles, and live presentations.

What was your path towards publication like?
I have been blessed to have ready markets for all of my work. Our local newspapers and non-profits were glad to get well-edited ready-to-go content at no cost to them. Because my husband supports us, I did not have to seek paying markets, although I am now paid for some of my articles, either by cash or through free advertising. I have been careful to retain the rights so I can sell reprints of those articles when I speak.

Realizing that my first two books addressed very narrow markets that traditional publishers would not likely have interest in, I chose to self-publish. I have enjoyed the liberty that self-publishing permits in terms of deadlines, editing, etc., and it is doubtful that I will ever seek out a royalty publisher. I hire people to format the text, design the cover, and print the books. I sell some from my own website and others through a variety of distributors and in back-of-the-room sales when I speak. Recently I published my first e-book and learned how to make it downloadable from my website. I am a musician, not a technician, so that was an adventure!

Self-publishing is more work than turning your book over to a royalty publisher, just as home educating your children is more work than turning them over to the public schools. The marketing is all in the author’s lap, but that is increasingly the case even with traditional publishers. But I value the liberty of more control of the end product, not to mention increased profits and the freedom to set my own production schedule. The investment in time and money is more than worth it.


What was the first market you queried and why did you choose that market?
I queried home education magazines, realizing that I could reach a wider audience through magazine articles than through books. As a veteran of nineteen years of homeschooling our five sons, as well as serving in various leadership positions at the local and state level, I believed that I had some insights that might be of value to homeschooling parents.


What is your biggest obstacle when it comes to pitching yourself as a writer and what steps have you taken to overcome that obstacle?
Because I write part-time, I have had to become more disciplined in sending out pitches. Generally I have more work to do than time to do it, so I haven’t needed to send many queries. However, in preparing for the launch of my first general interest book, Homemade Convenience Foods, I have expanded my search for new markets in order to push the book. It has been an adventure to move beyond the homeschool and musician markets.


Aside from magazine articles and book contracts, how can someone earn money writing?
I earn honorariums when I speak to homeschool support groups and at conferences. Additionally, organizers have always been willing to allow me to sell my books and article reprints at these events. The speaking leads to article and book sales and the book and articles lead to speaking engagements.

I often include an offer for a free article or tip sheet on a related topic in my bio at the end of an article. Those who respond are sent a list of topics that I speak about and an invitation to sign up for my free newsletter on my website. I have built my mailing list doing this over the years.


How do you balance your life as a writer with your duties as a parent or spouse?
When my children were at home, I was only writing a few articles each year, so it was not difficult, although I did have to balance how many piano students I would accept related to the ages of our sons. Now that our sons are adults, I write most of the day on Mondays and mornings- only on Tuesdays Wednesdays, and Thursdays (I teach piano lessons from 12:00-6:00 those days). I avoid writing tasks on Friday-Sunday, since my husband is home those days; I just respond to book orders.


What is your best advice for getting past writer's block?
I seldom have writer’s block because I actively file items for future projects as I run across them. I just need to open my files for more ideas than I can use. I suspect if I ever tried to write fiction I would soon face writer’s block—my brain simply doesn’t move in that direction.


What was the best writing-related advice you ever received?
Write what God has laid on your heart to write. It may be a how-to piece, an inspirational story, or a concert review to encourage young musicians. Treat everything you write as a gift to God and produce it with the greatest degree of excellence you are able to offer. Seek to serve God by serving your readers.


What do you feel is the single most detrimental thing a writer could do to destroy his/her career as a writer?
A writer must live and write with integrity and transparency. If a writer is a hypocrite, it will soon be sensed by readers. A writer, especially a Christian writer, must be the real deal, sharing both victories and challenges to validate the message.


Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book?
"Homemade Convenience Foods" details a method for getting homemade, nutritious food on the table in 15 minutes or less. It is not once-a-month cooking or frozen pizzas or carry-out Chinese, but a simple method that even never-cooked-much-before college kids and newlyweds can easily learn to implement. I developed it as a survival tactic when I was homeschooling five always-hungry sons and running three businesses. With this system, you will always have the ingredients on hand to prepare at least two dozen different menus—no more late afternoon time- and money-sucking grocery runs. Even drop-in guests won’t faze you.

"Homemade Convenience Foods" is available in both e-book and print editions from my website at www.marciawashburn.com.


If you could choose just one thing for your book to accomplish, what would it be?
Research shows that the average woman has spent 50,000 hours in her kitchen by the age of 45! I suspect that there are many women out there who are not interested in being the “average” of that statistic. My prayer is that Homemade Convenience Foods will give busy parents more time with their families and less time with their pots and pans.


What’s ahead for your writing?
This year I plan to publish several more e-books based on articles from my “Management for Life” columns. A longer parenting book is in the works for the future.

Learn more about Marcia K. Washburn at http://www.marciawashburn.com/

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This post was sponsored by The Dabbling Mum.

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