When I started you had to explain what ebooks were and they came on these adorable mini cds from my publisher. (I'll try to find mine and take a picture of it.)
Much more approval of self-publishing these days (and it's all I do).
On one hand, I lament the loss of writing groups that taught me the basics that newer authors have to hunt for now, but on the other, oh it's so freeing just to write and publish without gatekeepers of all kinds.