1. Visit a self-publishing site such as Amazon's Kindle Direct (https://kdp.amazon.com/) and create a presentation to give to aspiring authors about distributing their works this way.
2. What other industries' channel of distribution has been impacted dramatically by online, mobile, and social media?
Do you think that you have what it takes to write a best-selling novel? In the past, authors had to go through traditional publishing houses to print and distribute their work, but technology has turned the publishing industry on its head. Although aspiring authors could always self-publish a book, selling it through the traditional channels-book stores-was only a pipedream for most. But that has all changed thanks to the Internet and social media. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing is a popular platform for self-publishers, but others such as Smashwords, Author Solutions, and Fast-Pencil offer similar services with hundreds of thousands of authors and titles. For example, Amanda Hocking's self-published e-book sales caught the attention of a publisher, and now the former social worker is a millionaire. Self-published books have grown nearly 300 percent in less than ten years, with the majority being e-books. Almost 40 percent of readers now own e-readers, such as Kindles and iPads. That creates opportunities for anyone wanting to distribute their works to these avid readers. For example, after being turned away by traditional publishers, author Christine Bronstein created her own online social network to promote her book, Nothing But the Truth, So Help Me God: 51 Women Reveal the Power of Positive Female Connection, which launched on Amazon and Barnes and Noble sites.