Lulu, one of my favourite micropublishers, has wisely embraced Apple’s brand-new iBookstore (think iTunes for books).

The outcome: Apple gets more content, Lulu gains a distributor and authors gain access to a highly lucrative market of readers who buy a lot stuff online, including ebooks. Everyone wins.

Lulu’s timing could not be better for this. Have a look at the kinds of sales that ebooks are generating these days.

According to the International Digital Publishing (IDP) Forum, ebooks generated some $165.8 million in sales in 2009: more than triple what was reported in 2008 ($53.5 million) and more than five times the record for 2007 ($31.5 million).

Data: International Digital Publishing Forum

This is an niche industry that has barely…just barely begun to hit its stride.

Results for 2010 are already described by the IDP as being off the charts…some $60 million in January and February alone, putting it on track to score some $300 million in sales by the time the year is through.