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Home » Archives for Dan Balow

Dan Balow

Why Are Traditional Publishers So Picky?

By Dan Balowon July 24, 2025
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Publishing books is an imprecise process, with many ingredients involved, making it impossible to predict a particular outcome.

Working for and with publishers for most of my life, I’ve seen every side of the business; and the best I can do to describe it is humbling for everyone involved. Anyone who thinks they have it all figured out with 100% certainty is in for a rude awakening and a humbling series of circumstances that drives many out of the industry, but at the very least drives those who stay involved to their knees, literally and figuratively.

Every publisher, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, must generate more revenue each year than its expenses. No one continues to operate if that isn’t the case.

The primary ingredient to their success is the ability to identify, develop, and publish books that sell well. And by the way, everyone at a publisher knows who is better at that than others.

Years ago, I worked for a publisher and helped develop a data-analysis process to evaluate the success of every book they published. One of the items I could add to the mix was the name of the person who identified and acquired the book. Twenty years ago, in this particular case, there was no desire for that information because it could create problems for those who didn’t grade well, who might have been long-term or respected employees.

Fast-forward to today, and every publisher evaluates their staff using some metrics. If you are involved in acquiring new titles, you will have a scorecard somewhere in the company to record your wins and losses.

When someone turns down your book at a publisher, in some cases (hopefully rare), the person declining it might be under pressure to improve their “batting average” and might be less than excited about taking another risk on something that isn’t a sure thing (which doesn’t exist either).

As an agent, I won’t take on a new client if I cannot think of enough acquiring editors who might be interested. I have a baseball mentality to agenting. If I send too many proposals to an editor who declines, I might not get the same consideration when something really fits with them. That’s why agents are picky as well. Too many swings and misses, and editors stop paying attention to what we send.

From an aspiring author’s standpoint, they want someone to take a chance on them and allow them to be published.

But agents and publishers are very selective in what they represent or publish, mainly because their livelihood could be on the line. Too many failures and it makes agenting not worth the effort, and could jeopardize the employment of someone working at a publisher.

Book publishing is a failure business, just like baseball. In publishing, if a publisher is good at what they do, a third of their new books make money, a third lose money, and a third might break even.

In baseball, the difference between a player who is an all-star and someone who never gets much of a chance to play can boil down to one additional hit every twenty times they bat.

Yes, everyone is picky in publishing, and for good reason.

I know rejection is horrible, but be more understanding when you encounter those who are more risk-averse than you. You may be unaware of the pressures they face to perform.

 

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Category: Book Business, Rejection

The Mission of Older Christian Writers

By Dan Balowon July 10, 2025
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Few things are more critical than knowing one’s purpose in life. For unbelievers, finding their purpose is a daily struggle, constantly blowing them about from here to there, anxiously searching for anything that makes sense of life. But for a disciple of Jesus Christ, this is easy, as we are called to be his ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). The role has broad implications, but it is an important …

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Category: Career, The Writing Life, Theology

First Published Book in America

By Dan Balowon June 26, 2025
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The publishing industry in the United States is about $30 billion per year, covering all kinds of books and materials. Traditional book publishers account for about 10% of the total number of books published in the US and about 95% of the revenues. Where did it all start? Two hundred fifty years ago this week (June 23, 1775, to be precise), the first book printed and published in America was …

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Category: Book Business, Historical, Publishing History

Three Nonfiction Books Any Christian Writer Can Write

By Dan Balowon June 12, 2025
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Agents routinely receive proposals from aspiring authors that are the only creative writing they have ever attempted. At the same time, someone who is eventually published successfully likely has a half dozen other things in a file they’ve never shown to anyone. If you are an experienced or aspiring writer and are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have the opportunity (or responsibility?) to …

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Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Publishing Without a Platform

By Dan Balowon May 22, 2025
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I spent much of my early career in publishing, working with authors and publishers to market their books. It didn’t take long to experience the number one complaint of all authors working with all publishers: The marketing department didn’t do enough. And even when we did a good job, once the book launched and the initial marketing plan completed, the author and book were abandoned to sail across …

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Category: Platform

Writing for Others

By Dan Balowon May 8, 2025
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Failure to be published traditionally or unsuccessful self-publishing often results from writing what you want, rather than what readers want, to read. This is common in book publishing, where the market’s randomness and subjectivity create a disconnect between authors, publishers, and readers. Every step along the publishing process attempts to predict the desires of the next step. More …

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Category: The Publishing Life, The Writing Life

A Month at the Center of History

By Dan Balowon April 24, 2025
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April 1945 might have been the pivotal month in all world history, considering all of the historical events and people who eventually ended up in books, articles, photos, and movies—likely thousands, both from a Judeo-Christian and a secular perspective. Looking day by day, this was April 1945, eighty years ago. April 1 – Easter Sunday. The Battle of Okinawa, Japan began. It was the largest and …

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Category: Historical

Every Christian Book Is About Easter

By Dan Balowon April 10, 2025
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As we near Holy Week, I know the assertion that every Christian book is about Easter won’t change anything in publishing. The seasonal best-seller lists, bookseller promotions, online keyword searches, and publishers require marketing hooks to advertise. But let’s face it: All Christian books are really about Easter Sunday morning. Christian books all have a key pivot point of their message in the …

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Category: The Publishing Life, Theology

Foreign Intelligence

By Dan Balowon March 27, 2025
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In 2017, I wrote about The Challenge for American Christian Authors. I asserted that great care needs to be taken when American authors want their message to be understood by anyone outside of the US Christian subculture. Today, I am reversing that position and looking at what writers from other countries might have to say to the North American believer. Two things brought this to mind: First, I …

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Category: Book Business, Career, Theology

What Are You Saying?

By Dan Balowon March 13, 2025
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Before telling someone, “You should write a book,” be sure you know what you are encouraging them to do. If you are the one told to write, I am sure you quickly discovered that it wasn’t as easy as you were led to believe. And you either just put the suggestion on the back burner or took a lot of time to learn about how things work and then proceeded with your eyes wide open. If you are the one …

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Category: Fun Fridays
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