News from the Herd - April '26

Tour de Zebras: The herd travels to Bologna, Buenos Aires, Paris and Munich

For the Zebras, April was marked by a number of trips both at home and abroad. As part of BolognaBookPlus at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Zebra Jessica Barnfield chaired a discussion on the perennial topic of AI in publishing: “Creativity vs. Affordability”

Zebra Carlos Rojas took part in a panel discussion on “Distribution, Platforms and Visibility” at CONTEC Buenos Aires, focusing on the role of audiobooks in global marketing strategies. He also chaired the session “How to Make Books Available Across Markets: Challenges and Solutions”, a topic which is also the focus of the latest issue of STRIPES magazine.

Zebra Charlotte Mauti attended the Festival du Livre de Paris beneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais and discussed the current boom in audio content on the French-speaking market with colleagues and partners from the industry.

Last but not least, the Zebras Mara Hartung, Theresa Soltau, Lisa Gutman, Julia Ramrath and Melina Miller attended the annual conference of the Börsenverein’s Audiobook Working Group in Munich, representing the entire Zebra herd within the industry association.

Zebralution Audio Award for Bonnier Books and Nosy Crow

On 29 April, the Independent Publishers Guild in London once again presented the Independent Publishing Awards, and, as last year, Zebralution was delighted to sponsor the award in the “Audio” category. What was entirely new, however, was the decision by the jury, led by Zebra’s Jessica Barnfield, to present not just one but two awards: one to Bonnier Books for “The Girl In The Cellar” by Maryann Webb and the other to Nosy Crow for “Choose Your Own Evolution” by Jules Howard. Congratulations once again!