How would you summarize the current state of internationalization in the audiobook and e-book market? What are the most important trends?

Ailish Jung: The market for audiobooks and e-books has opened up massively on a global scale. Whereas the US, Western Europe, and parts of Asia used to dominate, demand is now growing worldwide—often in entirely new markets.

Jessica Barnfield: Markets are developing very differently internationally. The US and Northern Europe are mature subscription markets, while many other regions are price-sensitive, fragmented, or heavily promotion-driven.

Carlos Rojas: In Spanish-speaking countries, the audience for spoken word content has been growing significantly for years. The region is considered particularly dynamic, and digital formats are increasingly being used strategically.

JB: Growth today is driven less by larger catalogs and more by platform consolidation, subscription expansion, and discovery mechanisms. Competitive advantage comes from smart market prioritization and strong DSP relationships.

Mara Hartung: German-language publishers are thinking more confidently about internationalization. Many are now evaluating international audio rights themselves, which allows them to better exploit potential outside of traditional licensing models.

Theresa Soltau: Distribution is no longer a bottleneck today. The key question is: How do we create visibility? Value-added distribution means actively translating content into demand rather than just providing it.

In which international markets do you currently see the greatest growth opportunities for audiobooks, audio dramas, and e-books?

AJ: We see great momentum in India, Southeast Asia, Spanish-speaking countries, and Brazil. In Europe, Poland, the Baltic states, and the Balkans are growing particularly fast, often driven by agile local publishers and mobile-first users.

MH: In the e-book sector, international markets remain stable. Growth is primarily driven by the internationalization of existing programs, rather than by new regions.

CR: The audio segment continues to be highly dynamic, especially among young target groups. Regions such as Latin America have a wide reach but lower purchasing power, which is why we are working on market development there with co-productions. The Spanish-speaking markets offer great opportunities: the range of audiobooks is still limited, which creates scope for growth. In addition, print-on-demand enables reach without logistics costs, for example to the 60 million Spanish-speaking people in the US.

JB: The largest growth markets are in Asia, particularly India and China. Regions in North Africa and the Middle East (MENA) are also growing thanks to affordable data packages and local-language content. In Europe, Poland and France stand out as particularly dynamic audio markets.

What particular characteristics and challenges do you encounter in the various regions when distributing digital titles? 

AJ: Smartphone usage and price sensitivity dominate many Asian markets. Shorter formats, series, and content in local languages work particularly well there.

MH: Localization goes far beyond translation. Dialects, cultural codes, and genre conventions vary greatly. What works globally still needs local sensitivity.

CR: Listening habits differ significantly. In many Spanish-speaking countries, traffic and long commutes create numerous audio moments. At the same time, a globally distributed audience is waiting for Spanish-language digital content.

JB: Some of the biggest challenges include payment methods, price acceptance, language and script complexity, and fragmented platform landscapes.

Welche strategischen Anpassungen sind nötig, um medienübergreifend in verschiedenen Ländern erfolgreich zu sein?

AJ: International distribution works best when publishers think regionally and scale globally. Prices, platforms, formats, and marketing must be adapted to local customs.

TS: Subscription markets require continuous output, while single-purchase markets require precise pricing. Successful localization includes covers, metadata, titles, and descriptions. Local partnerships are essential. International rights only add value when local expertise is taken into account.

CR: The Spanish-speaking world continues to struggle with regional availability gaps, which can be offset digitally. In the audio format, there is also the question of Spanish or Latin American voice talent, depending on the target audience and content.

JB: In mature markets, optimization for dominant DSPs and algorithmic visibility are important. In emerging markets, flexible pricing and strong local players are crucial. Multi-platform strategies are becoming increasingly important

Which marketing measures and channels have proven particularly successful in an internationalized market?

MH: Globally, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are key marketing levers and often more effective than traditional advertising.

TS: In the audio segment, playlists, recommendations, and editorial placements are crucial. The most successful approach is a combination of scalable global strategies and culturally appropriate localization.

JB: International marketing today is platform-native and data-driven. We rely on DSP campaigns, pre-orders, metadata optimization, influencer collaborations, and performance analyses to ensure that measures generate sustainable use.

How is international demand developing for different formats such as e-books, audiobooks, and audio dramas?

MH: E-books remain a stable foundation. In many countries, audiobooks are the entry point into the audio market. In the US and UK, hybrid, dramatized productions with multiple narrators or additional sound design are emerging.

TS: Platforms such as Storytel and BookBeat are investing more heavily in originals and serial formats – mainly in markets with high market penetration. Emerging markets almost always start with classic readings.

JB: Audiobooks are growing faster globally than e-books. Audio increasingly includes audio dramas and episodic fiction. India is a pioneer in this area, while in Europe audiobooks are being integrated into broader subscription ecosystems.

What innovations are particularly relevant for the future of the market? How can publishers and service providers benefit from the change?

AJ: Publishers benefit when they use local content, optimized metadata, and new formats such as serials and cross-media bundles. This strengthens loyalty and creates new revenue models.

TS: Artificial intelligence (AI) is already changing translation, localization, metadata, marketing, and production—and could enable personalized content on demand in the future. This makes strategic curation increasingly relevant.

CR: AI can help expand audio catalogs in emerging markets, but fair models for rights and monetization are needed. The expansion of Spanish-language catalogs without exclusive restrictions remains central.

JB: The big opportunity for publishers lies in building intellectual property that moves fluidly between text, audio, and screen. Formats should be treated as interwoven creative ecosystems rather than standalone products. Building on this, pricing structures are needed that will continue to benefit authors in the future.

What specific recommendations do you give to publishers who want to grow internationally?

AJ: Quite simply: Talk to us—we can help!

MH: Publishers should secure international rights—especially audio rights—as early and comprehensively as possible, approach internationalization strategically rather than opportunistically, and incorporate local expertise. Markets should be consciously prioritized and appropriate content selected. In addition, it is worthwhile to use AI as an efficiency and scaling tool. Those who combine rights, platform mechanics, and demand development will create long-term strategic options for themselves.

CR: At Zebralution, we generally advocate the use of professional narrators—not only because we firmly believe in them, but also because market data shows that listeners respond better to them. We advise publishers considering the use of AI voices to make it dependent on the quantity: when it comes to converting the entire catalog into audio quickly and cost-effectively, AI can be a viable option. However, if the aim is to produce a selection of the best titles to test the segment, it is definitely worth investing in the work of professional producers and actors.

JB: International expansion should be a strategic rollout. Publishers who understand local platform dynamics, pricing realities, and metadata standards—and choose partners who are both operationally reliable and strategically competent—are successful. Long-term relationships beat short-term placements.

Thank you very much for the exchange!

Whether eBooks or audiobooks – digital formats have long been established globally. Our graphics provide a compact overview of the most important trends and show how differently digital formats are used around the world.

• Sales in the first few months after release are higher for follow-up titles than for previous titles
• In addition, new titles typically show uplift effects for the previous titles

• The average retention rate (RR) is high – i.e., the proportion of readers/listeners who read part n and part n+1 of a series. With RR values of 60–70%, we can speak of very good series loyalty, with >70% of a strong brand (rarely outside audiobooks), and with RR values >80% of a fan franchise (especially common in genres such as fantasy, romance, cozy crime, etc.)

Marketing & promotion: Every campaign counts!

Every type of campaign – price campaign, sales campaign, brand campaign – offers a wealth of data that can contribute significantly to understanding the business. Of course, this requires the complete collection of the data chain, starting with the campaign launch and ending with the final event, e.g., the purchase of a title.

Example: A publisher launches a new e-book with three different Instagram ads: one focusing on the cover, one focusing on a reader's opinion, and one focusing on an emotional quote. After a week, the ads with the quote have generated 47% more clicks and twice as many purchases as the other variants. Logically, this provides important insights into how future campaigns should be organized. But the implications of this campaign are greater: as mentioned above, a quote can be an important element of the "additional text" metadata block. Or to think even further ahead: wouldn't a quote be a good fit for the book cover?

Long term: performance monitoring & long-tail optimization

At any given time, there are ten titles within a publishing house that are selling best at that moment and then appear in one of the beloved top ten lists. However, looking at absolute sales or turnover figures is rarely helpful. A much more interesting question is whether a title is a poor or good performer, i.e., whether it is performing below or above its actual potential. The potential of a title can be defined, for example, on the basis of the first six months after release. If a title actually performs below expectations, i.e., fails to reach its potential, there can be many reasons for this: popular competing titles, mediocre reviews, low awareness of the author(s), poor metadata quality, etc. Not all titles in a backlist have a marketing budget available, which makes it all the more important to identify those titles that have potential for improvement.

One way to identify titles with potential for improvement is based on a kind of "title-internal" prediction model. Statistical analyses show a very high correlation between sales figures in the first six months after release and later months:

The following two graphs show the monthly (gray) and cumulative (blue) sales development of two titles, with the cumulative sales of the first title in the upper range of the expected yellow sales corridor, while the second title is stuck in the lower range of expectations.

Austria is thus significantly below the German level (approx. -6.7%). The median – i.e., the value that divides all sales prices into two equal groups – is even €1.24 below the median in Germany (-13.9%). This means that 50% of sales in Austria are below €7.71. Normally, however, AT should be on par with or slightly above DE because AT and DE have similar purchasing power (with slight advantages for AT).

As expected, Switzerland is above the German price level. However, the price difference of 23% is slightly below the usual Swiss surcharge (often 25–35%). A detailed analysis shows that CH prices for Google and Tolino in particular are only just under 9% above DE prices and are therefore actually too low for the Swiss market.

A more detailed title-based analysis shows that 55% of the catalog either has an AT price that is less than 90% of the DE price or a CH price that is less than 115% of the DE price. In this case, it is very likely that more money could be earned quickly by adjusting prices.

This type of analysis can also be applied to subsets of catalogs (e.g., all titles by an author, all titles in a series), so that decisions can be made on a case-by-case basis as to whether prices should be adjusted or not. It is helpful to first adjust prices for those platforms (where price fixing does not apply) that provide data on conversion rates, as these provide important insights into market-specific price elasticity.

The following overview supports flexible international pricing based on the price for the German market and follows approximately the following calculation rules:

Summary: Data-driven publishing as a cycle

As the examples show, the data-driven publishing process is a cycle and not a sprint. Each phase in the product cycle provides data and experience that, on the one hand, has a concrete impact on the next phase, but on the other hand can also change the entire cycle. This means that data-driven publishing is more than a project; at its core, it is an attitude! Less gut feeling and individual opinions, more systematic analysis, hypotheses, testing, measurement, and ongoing adjustments to decisions. It is important to emphasize that this is not about replacing creativity, but rather about optimally supporting and securing it.

For DDP to succeed, some preparatory work is required: data must be collected consistently, stored in a structured manner, and evaluated critically. The targeted use of specialized tools and the establishment of data-savvy teams can help here. The increasing use of AI in "home use" creates numerous opportunities for rapid data analysis, but also runs the risk of getting lost at the level of individual analyses instead of being part of an iterative overall strategy. Only when data-driven publishing is implemented integrally as a cycle does every publishing process result not only in a better book, but ultimately also in a better business model.

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Check out the pictures our colleagues took all over the world and guess which photo belongs to which book fair.