Seneca Quarry on Metro Connection

Have you ever wondered where the bright red sandstone came from that built the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington, DC? It came from the Seneca quarry, a long-forgotten site in western Montgomery County, Maryland, right on the Potomac. It is perhaps my most memorable research discovery in The Potomac River: A History and Guide.

The Smithsonian Castle (1847). Photo by Garrett Peck

The quarry – or rather, quarries (there are six of them) – are overgrown with brush and trees and almost inaccessible since they shut down early in the twentieth century. It’s especially remarkable seeing the Seneca stone cutting mill, built in 1837, which looks like a ruin in the Peruvian jungle – only it’s bright red. It sits only a few hundred feet from the Seneca Aqueduct on the C&O Canal, yet most people walk past without ever noticing it.

The Seneca Stone Cutting Mill (1837). Photo by Garrett Peck

Last week, I took Rebecca Sheir, host of WAMU 88.5 FM’s Metro Connection, out to the Seneca quarry to show her the site. She recorded our visit, which will play on Friday, March 30 at 1:00pm – and rebroadcast on Saturday, March 31 at 7:00am. Afterwards it will be posted as a podcast – and you’ll also find an extensive photo essay, thanks to my friend and professional photographer Tom Espinoza who served as our official photographer for the outing.

We also met Bob Albiol, the man who restored and lives in the quarry masters house above the Seneca quarry. He knew a tremendous amount about the quarry and its operations, and he even told us that an illegal still operated out of one of the quarries during Prohibition. I’m already planning a return visit. 

WAMU's Rebecca Sheir interviews Bob Albiol, who restored and
lives in the Seneca Quarry Masters House (1830). Photo by Garrett Peck

This was my second time on Metro Connection: we did a segment in 2011 about the bar Dirty Martini in Dupont Circle, which was the high-end speakeasy the Mayflower Club in the waning days of Prohibition. Click here to listen to that Prohibition podcast. 

I hope you’ll tune in this Friday at 1:00pm to Metro Connection!

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com

Building Your Platform

Everyone has an idea for a book, I’ve learned in my years of publishing. But how many people have the discipline to research and write a book, something that may take years?

Certainly everyone is entitled to an opinion, and many lay people know a lot about a particular area, such as through a hobby. But it takes more than that to publish a book. You need a platform – that which qualifies you authoritatively to speak and write on a topic. Bill Clinton had a heckuva platform – the Presidency – that qualified him to write My Life. As the retired Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan had a great platform as well for The Age of Turbulence.

Without a platform, you can’t get published. A book is at least a significant investment for a publisher (paying your advance, editing, printing, distribution, marketing, plus they have rent, salaries and benefits to pay – publishing ain’t cheap!). They’ll only publish your work if you can demonstrate unqualified authority in a marketable topic, and that they’ll recoup their investment through book sales. This is a business decision.

You build your platform through the media. It doesn’t mean you have to appear on national television – you may not get that unless you are a public figure – but there are endless ways of utilizing the media. Write letters to the editor. Give talks and tours (I lead the Temperance Tour of Prohibition-related sites in Washington, DC). Find out what trade magazines are published in your field of interest. Pitch a story idea to the editor, let them know that you’re open to assignments, and then build a relationship with them.

An article pitch, by the way, should be short and to the point – it should hook the editor immediately. You’ll know they’re interested when they write back thirty minutes after e-mailing it to them.

• The hook – an opening sentence or question that commands attention
• The outline for the article in a couple sentences and total word count
• Resources you’ll need to complete it (people you’ll interview, time, due date)
• Your qualifications to write the article

And you may even make a little money from the article. Negotiate as close to $1 a word as you can, though be realistic: print media took a beating during the recession, and freelance budgets were slashed.

Besides writing a darn good book idea and thorough marketing plan, your platform is an enormously important item publishers will look at in deciding whether to publish your book.  

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com  

Preparing for Publication

I’m excited to tell you that my third book, The Potomac River: A History and Guide, has shipped from The History Press’s warehouse to distributors and retailers. You can now order the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and have it shipped to you in the next week.

This is my second book by The History Press, which published Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren’t in 2011. I’ve so enjoyed our collaboration that I didn’t hesitate to hit them up for my latest project – and I really hope we’ll have even more projects in the future.

Can I also ask a favor of you, the reader? I’ve created a Facebook fan page for the book, and I’m trying to get as many people as possible to “Like” it. If you would be so kind...

There is a natural quiet period in between when a book is at the printer, and when it actually ships to book buyers. This isn’t a time to rest if you’re an author – it’s a time to plan. Blog postings, events, interviews, the publication party, and reviews. Things that will help generate buzz for your book. You’ve got a crucial three month window after publication to make the book a success.

As we prepare for publication of The Potomac River, I’ve been more than a little busy setting up events for this spring. Here are some of the many fun things that I’ve lined up:

• Publication party at Congressional Cemetery on April 26. A Save the Date reminder has been sent out. This is open to the public - and all are invited. This will the funnest party you’ve ever been to in a cemetery! 
• Georgetown Neighborhood Library – May 3
• Literary Hill BookFest – May 6
• Barnes & Noble in Clarendon – May 12
• One More Page Books in Arlington – May 23

And I’m working on even more events, like Arlington Central Library and the Gaithersburg Book Festival. This fall will see the the major book festivals in Washington, DC. Creating, preparing for, and speaking at these events takes a great deal of time - even for just a one-hour appearance somewhere, you can spend several days preparing for it. And it is you, the author, who will do most of this work, unless you have money to hire a publicist. 

Social media is a big part of the strategy to publicize The Potomac River. My plan is to microblog on both Facebook and Twitter, mentioning upcoming events and posting a photo every few days about the river, along with the story behind that photo. There’ll be more blog postings here on Throwing Spaghetti, Cultural Tourism DC, bookstore blogs, and other places.

The publisher, The History Press, will be sending out a mass e-mail in the coming week announcing the book. This will go out to all of their press contacts as well as to my database of contacts (an Excel spreadsheet of about 1,500 people). 

I’ve already got one radio interview lined up: I’m taking the host of WAMU’s Metro Connetion radio magazine show out to the Seneca quarry, a forgotten site on the Potomac where they quarried the red sandstone for the Smithsonian Castle. This should broadcast at the end of March.

And finally, I made a list of key influencers and reviewers who will get copies of the book in the hope that they will add their voice to the public discussion. I provided these names to the publisher’s publicist. Despite the reputed demise of print media, many people still read book reviews in periodicals, and this is a key way to generate mass awareness. 

Speaking of reviews, if and when you get your copy of The Potomac River, I would encourage all readers to consider writing a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and any other online forum. Your voice really does matter: people trust their friends and family’s opinions more than anything else.

Here we go!

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com

Social Media: The Poor Person's Publicist

I call social media the “poor person’s publicist” for its ability to reach a broad audience at no cost, other than your time. The major social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. That’s a lot of social media to interact with! Clearly Facebook is the winner, though each site serves a particular niche. Posting status updates and promoting your book via social media is known as “microblogging.”

For my first book, I was often asked (mostly by publicists), Who is doing your public relations? I suspect this was because they wanted me to take them on under retainer, but my budget was so small I couldn’t afford a publicist. For a book tour, some authors hire a publicist to set up events, attract publicity and set up interviews. For a two or three-month promotion window, this can cost you $10,000 or more.

My advance was so small that I simply couldn’t afford that. Instead, I relied on my own marketing skills for generating word-of-mouth marketing, while working with the publicist at Rutgers University Press. As Rutgers was my first publisher, I got to use her services for free. The third leg in the chair was the director of sales and marketing, to whom I passed all my sales leads. And the fourth leg was social media, primarily Facebook (I’ve since started using Twitter as well). It was there that I set up events and broadcast them out publicly via the book’s Facebook group, where I could hit a large audience.

Admittedly, Facebook can be hit-or-miss. As much as you encourage your friends to invite people to an event and spread the word, so often they simply reply Attend, Maybe, or Decline, and nothing else. Likewise, many people don’t treat a Facebook RSVP with any commitment. If someone says they’ll attend an event, they’re just as likely not to come. And if someone RSVPs Maybe, they probably won’t attend. So take the Yes people and subtract between a quarter and a third: that’s how many people will in fact show. I’m not being a pessimist – this is just based on my experience. I call this “Facebook math.”

Facebook used to be stronger at events, but now that everyone knows about it, I find that it is weaker. We are all drowning in events – it seems every week that I get invited to at least a half-dozen events. So many events just makes you want to ignore Facebook events entirely.

Sometimes good old-fashioned e-mail is a better way to invite people to an event, rather than relying on social media, where it may go into a black hole. I say use both. You can certainly use social media to alert people to events – such as simply updating your status with details about the event, rather than creating a formal event that most will simply ignore.

Twitter is another key social media tool that is especially popular among public figures and brand advocates. A downside is that you can only post 140 characters. I broadcast all of my events there and update my status regularly, but frankly don’t use it for what most people seem to: getting the latest news. Rather, I spend most of my social media time on Facebook, as that is where my friends hang out.

Some people have their feeds linked so that when they update Twitter, Facebook is updated as well. This can be annoying to Facebook users, as all those hashtags (#bourbon) and names (@bobjones) and tiny URLs don’t really translate to Facebook and make for uneasy reading.

So when is the ideal time to post? We live in a 7x24 era, yet posting late at night or really early in the morning will miss much of your audience, which is asleep. Post during the daytime, ideally during working hours (and not commuting hours). For blog posts, mid-week is ideal. Forget Fridays: people are busy trying to finish their work and get out of the office for the weekend. Your post will blithely pass them by. Despite the 7x24 news cycle, much social media traffic is generated during working hours and early evening.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter (@garrettpeck), or subscribe to my updates on Facebook (garrettpeck). Or better yet, please “Like” the Facebook fanpage for The Potomac River.

Garrett Peck

www.garrettpeck.com