Hi Mike,
There certainly is hope for the rest of the world. It's catch-up time right now in the UK, Australia and other territories. For the last decade, the Americans have really been leading the charge. Every major US publisher has had a dedicated ebook team in place clearing rights, converting files and establishing distribution agreements with people like OverDrive, Lightning Source, MobiPocket and Ebooks Corporation.
We have attempted to engage UK and Australian publishers during that time but with little effect. However the last 9 months has seen a sudden increase in interest from UK publishers. Every major UK publisher has an established digital initiative now, and we're in discussions.
Australian publishers are still feeling their way with ebooks. Australia's leading independent publisher,
Allen & Unwin, is the exception. A&U has been publishing ebooks since 2000 and they are well ahead of the curve.
In summary, we can expect to see an increased flow of UK-published material in the coming year, and I think Australian publishers will start picking up sometime after that.
We all knew that ebooks were going to be a generational change, but I guess we didn't really expect it would actually take a generation.
Cheers,
Stephen
CEO
eBooks.com