I’ve been thinking about this for a while, probably since I became fascinated by social media and communication. The more I reseached and browsed, the more I realised that women are running with the communication revolution and making it their own.

Much is made of how SM has revolutionised politics – and through instant communication we’ve seen the face of elections and demonstations alter. Twitter and Facebook can bring the demise of dictatorships – we’ve seen that too. Sure, there is plenty of rumour and disinformation out there, but somehow the essential message still gets through. As Mr Universe said, “Can’t stop the signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere.” Serenity-Joss Whedon.

(I don’t know about you but Twitter is my main source of breaking news. It also makes me laugh a lot, a reminds me that there are some very clever, funny people in this world.)

But what’s not being talked about so much, is how SM has liberated the entrepreneur – especially female entrpreneurs. There is a burgeoning industry of women building careers as Lifestyle Mentors, Life Coaches, Social Media Coaches, Media Mavens, Publicity and Marketing Experts, Inventors and Presenters.

Most of them began with a simple blog or website, and by the skill of their ability to communicate, have turned their passion into financially viable businesses.

I’m excited for them!

No longer do women (of all ages) have to plead to banks, goverments and partners to help them start-up a business. If they have a product and a means to communicate, they can do it themselves. Not only that but they are displaying a remarkable talent for it.

The aspect I’m really loving on though, is the nature of many of these enterprises. Mentorship, friendship, social conscience are high on the agendas.

It makes me think that maybe society is heading for better times!

Below is a list to whet your appetite:

Girls Above Society

Chelsea Krost

The Style and Go

Sarah Newton

Type A Parent

And for those who aren’t convinced there even is an industry …

NMX World – the future of content, community and commerce

Creatives Unite – connecting writers to the resources they need to get their books finished, seen and sold.

So, you’ve written a novel and you want to get it published. Fantastic! You now have some important choices to make. Will you to try your luck with a conventional publisher, or will you forego that path and its potential rejection letters and venture down the self-publishing route?

Why not try both?

Traditional publishers have undergone mergers and downsizing, and demand for electronic media has risen, with more
books (particularly in eBook format) being sold than ever before. With so many books on offer, it is an enormous task to get yours noticed, and sold, in such a competitive, fluctuating market. You are not alone in trying to get your book picked up. There are hundreds upon thousands of authors, all vying to get their books seen, both on- and offline.

If you want to compete, your offering needs to be the best it can possibly be before you put it out there, which means you will need to invest in your own work. Even on the self-publishing route, your book needs to be edited, a cover needs to be designed, and it needs to be promoted by professionals, if you want it to be taken seriously – by both your peers, and your potential readers.
But many professionals from the conventional publishing world are right now finding themselves being made redundant. Our skilled editors, cover designers and other industry people are finding themselves without the security of a full time job; risking their invaluable skills and knowledge being lost, simply because those who need their skills can no longer find them.

Creatives Unite was built to make it easy for writers to find the people they need to polish their book, launch and publicise their work, and as a vessel for now-freelancing publishing industry professionals to list their skills and be found. With an ever-growing directory of professional editors, agents, artists, audiobook producers, marketing consultants, researchers, video trailer creators, and even other writers, Creatives Unite enables you to build your own book finishing team. Work with only who you need, and who you want, and negotiate directly with the freelancer of your choice.

A year in the making itself, Creatives Unite was a collaborative project between Brisbane web developer Min Dean and Australian author, Isobelle Carmody, who both wanted to devise a way for writers to find the professionals and the advice they needed to get their books sold at the highest quality possible. During its beta phase, the site had significant input from Australian author (and Australian Society of Authors chair) Sophie Masson, during which the ASA Membership discount was implemented. Creatives Unite has a yearly maintenance fee of $10 (or $5, if you are an ASA member), to ensure the site can be constantly expanded with additional functionality, with the additional security ensuring that all personal contact information is protected from the eyes of the public.

So whether you are a writer seeking to be published conventionally, a writer going it alone along the self-publishing path, or a professional who wants to advertise their skills to writers who need them, head over to Creatives Unite, list yourself, and start connecting!

Visit http://creatives-unite.net for more information.

BEC STAFFORD INTERVIEWS LISA RYE

To what do you attribute the resurgence in retro-style games?

I believe the resurgence of retro-style games is coming from the gamers who grew up playing games, and wanting to make their own. I had classics when I was little, like Commander Keen and Chrono Trigger, which I must have finished twenty times or more over the years! There’s a strong nostalgia with those games, that brings you straight back to the feelings you felt when playing those old games you loved.

The first Beta version was publicly previewed at a games showcase. How nerve-wracking is that experience & how much testing and feedback preceded the release?

Presenting a new game is always nerve inducing, but we had fantastic responses at the first public showcase. If you have confidence that your game is fun to play, that helps a great deal!

What was your model in the creation of the ‘down scrolling’ retro style?

When the idea came to me, it brought up images of a fast, free flowing and tricky game play style, and I just wanted to play that! I’m not sure that there’s any particular game that inspired it, there’s plenty of vertical climbing games and side scrollers, but not so many falling games.

I’m a huge fan of American McGee’s ‘Alice: Madness Returns’ & the story that accompanies the game play. How difficult is it to incorporate a narrative into a gaming environment?

Bringing in a strong narrative to the game was very important to me. One of the aspects that made me fall head over heels in love with games was the way you could sink into another world and experience the story unfolding. But yes, you do need to approach story telling in games in a different way to how you’d approach a short story or film.

I know many indie developers just go the easy route of using a stereotypical story or not having a story at all due to time or budget reasons, but if you think creatively, there’s always a way.

Freedom Fall has been created for multiple platforms. Which are users predominantly downloading for and have you been any shifts in this trend over time?

I’ll have to answer this one after release!

What are some of your favourite retro games and why?

What counts as ‘retro’ differs from person to person, but I grew up playing games like Jazz Jack rabbit, Final Fantasy, Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure, Sim City and pretty much anything I could could find!

GOG, Humble Bundle, & the like offer gamers bulk games for incredibly low prices. How difficult is it to compete in this market and what do you need to consider in terms of promo work?

Right now, the indie market is doing wonders for small developers! Of course, this also means there are more and more people making games, so you do need to work hard to reach your audience. Indie groups don’t often have a large marketing budget, so you need to use every avenue you can: social media, conventions, personal blogs and websites, even supportive friends and family helping to spread the word can make a lot of difference!

Can you tell us how your idea for a reverse Rapunzel story evolved and why you elected to make the princess creepy and dark?

For Freedom Fall, the story emerged naturally from the game play style. The falling mechanic needed a set-up that suited it, so I created a prison tower that reaches the sky, then worked from there to develop a world and characters around it. I also wanted a story that would work without cut-scenes that take control away from the player, so the idea of the creepy little princess in her ridiculously tall tower, writing on the walls, just fit.

Which games are you currently playing in your spare time?

Spare time? What’s that? I do have a pile of games I’ve been dying to play after the release, but I did find the time to play Evoland the other day (that’s certainly a romp through some of the games I grew up with!) and replay Bastion, which I can also recommend a great deal!