News from the Herd - March '26

New Stripes Magazine on the Topic of Internationalisation

Whilst for many Zebras the dominant theme in March was the two book fairs in London and Leipzig, another part of the herd was busy putting together the second issue of STRIPES magazine, which has since been published. This second, trilingual issue focuses on the internationalisation of publishing: what opportunities and challenges does global visibility present for publishers? Alongside Zebra experts, representatives from partner publishers such as Lübbe Audio, KIDDINX and Atmende Bücher, as well as external publishing experts such as Carlo Carrenho, share their views on various aspects including translation and localisation, technical infrastructure, metadata, AI, and cultural and economic differences.

Benjamin the Elephant and Kevo Adler – These were the Stars of the Book Fairs in London and Leipzig

Mid-March is trade fair season! Over two consecutive weeks, a large part of the Zebra herd travelled first to the London Book Fair and then to the Leipzig Book Fair. In London, we were represented by two booths – a B2B stand for Zebralution Digital Publishing and a B2C booth for Lismio, our “audiobook search engine”. This led to many constructive discussions with current and potential publishing partners, and the British audience was introduced to a classic of German children’s audio drama culture through free Benjamin the Elephant audio dramas. Of course, we also had audiobooks for adults on offer!

At the public book fair in Leipzig, Lismio naturally took centre stage as a B2C brand, and we pulled out all the stops: In addition to the Lismio stand and various free audiobooks across different genres, there were audio samples on the ‘Hörinsel’, discussions hosted by Zebras and readings on the main audio stage (e.g. featuring Frank Goosen, Nina Schilling, D.C. Odesza and Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç), as well as a host of well-attended book signings at our stand, where fans queued up for photos and autographs with popular authors and narrators such as Heidi Troi and Kevo Adler – a bit of celebrity glamour for the Zebras!