SAGA Egmont becomes Germany’s largest audiobook publisher

Lindhardt og Ringhof’s digital publishing house SAGA has acquired audiobook publisher Audiobuch Verlag oHG. With the acquisition, SAGA now has Germany’s largest audiobook catalogue with a veritable gem of authors: Siegfried Lenz, Simon Beckett, Lee Child and many more.  

“With the acquisition we consolidate our strong position in the German audiobook market. We still have great ambitions for SAGA worldwide and Germany is one of Europe’s most important book markets. We expect significant growth here as digitalisation accelerates and streaming becomes more widespread.” says Lasse Horne, Publishing Director of SAGA Egmont. 

He estimates that the supply of interesting rights and audiobook publishers is drying up in the Nordic countries, and that future potential acquisition opportunities for the publisher lie south of the border, where SAGA already owns audiobook publishers in several countries. With Audiobuch, Lindhardt og Ringhof will have acquired 5 publishers by 2021. 

The Future of Saga Egmont

Audiobuch’s publishing activities will be based in Copenhagen in cooperation with the Freiburg staff, and editorial director Thilde Pfeifer is looking forward to working with the publisher’s authors and titles: ‘Audiobuch’s catalogue is diverse, commercially strong and of high award-winning quality. The publisher has won the Deutscher Hörbuchpreis and Deutscher Buchpreis several times.”  

“We will be publishing many of Audiobuch’s authors internationally in the future. There is a lot of untapped potential here for the authors and the publisher,” says Lasse Horne. 

SAGA has over 80,000 digital titles in more than 30 languages in its catalogue. And now over 5,000 audio books in German. Already today, Lindhardt og Ringhof’s, Carlsen’s and SAGA’s own works are translated and published internationally. Most recently, Sarah Engell’s The Chinese Twin, Kristian Corfixen’s The Nurse and Anna Grue’s Murder in the Second-Hand Shop are scheduled for publication in the German market this autumn and spring.  

“The publishing industry has experienced a great tailwind in recent years. Here in the first half of 2021 alone, the Swedish book market grew by 10 percent, and this development only further boosts Lindhardt og Ringhof’s digital ambitions internationally. We have several other interesting things in our sights,” says Lindhardt og Ringhof CEO Lars Boesgaard. 

For more information about these titles, or our full English catalogue contact Nadia on – nadia.lamond@sagaegmont.com or simply book a meeting.