Intro

MoTown Records^∇ came to be because African American artists needed something fundamentally different than what the existing record labels offered. MoTown promoted their music, their concept of music, their categories, and even their approach to it, more sensual and religious at the same time. The existing labels were not capable of providing any of that, even with the best of intentions.

As MoTown was to Black artists and their music, rMedia is to Radical authors and themes.

Origin Story

The way it works now, publishers license your content and take on all the risk in exchange for selling your content under their ISBN. You own the content, they own only the ISBN. The publisher also owns the brand which they have built over many years and this imprimatur shines a light on your content. At least, that’s the historical narrative, but today it has evolved into something different.

Long story short, most authors make very little or no money from the sales of the book. According to author Chuck Blakeman, commissions are absurdly low, 8-11% generally. They can be delayed up to 30 months, after printing, distribution, and 12 months in bookstores. Essentially, you become the bank for the publishers. The publisher may or may not invest in any promotion. In many cases, the publisher uses the content as a trial balloon, to see if it has traction. If it does, they invest in promoting it, make a lot of money, and you may get some minor fame out of it and some speaking and consulting gigs. If your content doesn’t show traction, then… that’s that.

No matter, your book’s ISBN still belongs to them. You “own” the content, but the publisher is the only one who can sell it. According to Blakeman, “they own the ability to distribute [your content] for at least five years and you have no say in the use of it.”

As publisher Joshua Volpara says it, The important thing, to me, is not that publishers own the ISBN but that authors have granted them the right to economic exploitation over the work without limits of time, markets and even formats (e.g., ebooks) or by-products (e.g., movie screen-plays). Many times these limits are too loose and the deal becomes unfair.

And, worse, the book’s message doesn’t spread widely.

Alignment

	Impact
What for?	Create a source of information about the Radical. rMEDIA becomes the MoTown of Radical content.
	Purpose
Why?	We want the world to recognize the Fiat conditions they live in. Give people a choice to move away from Fiat and towards a Radical world. To spread Radical-like ideas sooner, faster, and without debilitating compromises.
	Mission
What?	Become self-sustainable. Organized as a Radical company. Everybody who contributes (e.g., authors, distributors, printers) participates in its ownership and the wealth it generates.
When?	Within 12 months.
How?	Create a Marketing and Sales flow. Leverage authors in the Marketing and Sales of the content. Establish a distinct and instantly recognizable brand. Experiment with different media for promotion and distribution. Virtual book clubs with authors, critics. Virtual debates, panels, interviews.

What’s in It for… ?

Besides ownership and participation in the generated wealth, this is what people will get,

Authors	Promotion and exposure of their ideas, of themselves, of their content. Being an rMedia author (i.e., progressive, future positive). Thought leader of a recognized trope.
Content Editors, Layout Designers, Developers, Graphics Designers, Media Team, Producers	Doing what they love, without paying the Fiat price. Doing it with a team of co-owners, responsible to each other. Able to experiment with the support of the team.
Translators, Verifiers	Learn what is perceived as a contribution. Champion your own notion of what represents a contribution from a translator or a verifier.
Marketing	Learning from the ability to experiment with various media, different messages. Spreading the Radical story, their story. Experimenting with different ways of getting the message out.
Sales	Learning from listening to different types of buyers. Learning what it takes to turn them into evangelists, not just book sellers. Spreading the Radical story, their story.
Printers	Learning to take the friction out of printing books. They’ll hear, we’ll help you compete with Amazon.
Distributors	Learning to take the friction out of book distribution. They’ll hear, we’ll help you compete with Amazon.
Small Bookshops	Learning to become impassionate evangelists, not just book sellers. Make more money from the content. … formerly the local stores in a small town competed sharply with one another. Now, … they are beginning to join in an effort to secure the trade of the outlying farming districts and of the summer residents who tend to buy from the city by mail order. They do this by saving capital through common store-houses, through dividing specialties and thus increasing stock without increasing expenditure, by improving local service through cooperative deliveries, etc.^∇
Big Book Chains	Be associated with a unique, easily identifiable brand that belongs to all who contribute. They’ll have to win rMedia’s endorsement the Fiat way. Unless they flip to the Radical paradigm.
rMedia	A much needed service centered on people to spread healing ideas, create content, and distribute it all far, wide. and fast. rMedia becomes a unique, easily recognized brand.

From Cradle to Sales

Book Preparation

Onboarding	Teach new authors about the process. Point out that it will take lots of reviewing over and over. Profile the authors to co-figure out how much of the work below they are willing/capable to do. Training in the use of new tools (e.g., InDesign, Jutoh, rMake). Mentoring (i.e., tools to find an experienced author).
Co-Editing	With an experienced editor from anywhere in the world.
Copy Editing	With copy editors from anywhere in the world.
Book Cover Design	With designers from anywhere in the world.
Book Layout	With layout book designers from anywhere in the world.
Text Formatting	With skilled people from anywhere in the world.
ISBNs	Acquisition and assignment of ISBN numbers.
Translations	With translators from anywhere in the world.

At one end, authors could use the help of rMedia; at the other they could do it themselves using the rMedia infrastructure. My guess is that they would choose a combination of these. For example, translations work better when the author works in tandem with the translator because the author can, in real time, clarify tricky phrasing, explain idiomatic phrases, or the why of a difficult paragraph.

Funding

Crowdfunding	Provides the equivalent of an “advance” for co-authors who need the support upfront. Used to test the effectiveness of different types of promotions, descriptions, tags, etc.
Radical funding	An advance-as-investment up front for an agreed upon return.

Promoting

Content Extraction	Creating extracts of the book for promotional content. Serialize (e.g., blogs). 115-second videos.
Video	Short videos (e.g.115-second videos). Publish serial form of content/extracts. Run campaigns on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Social Media	Run campaigns on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Publish serial form of content/extracts.
Advertising	For example, KDP ads.
Fame to Fortune	Place authors as keynotes, featured speakers. Podcast guests. The voice of courses and workshops.
rLive	See rLive.^∇
In-store Promos	See rShelf.^∇