I am very excited to announce that Dan Balow has rejoined our agency as a literary agent. Some of you may recall that he was with us for five years until leaving in 2018 to launch a new publishing venture. While they were able to create some incredible products, market forces and funding issues caused him to suspend that company.
That loss becomes our gain … and yours. I have known Dan for over 23 years now, and he is an amazing man of God. As a 38-year veteran of the Christian publishing industry, his strengths include a savvy understanding of book marketing and how all the pieces of the publishing “puzzle” fit together.
You may remember that he was the director of marketing for Tyndale House Publishers, working with authors Francine Rivers, James Dobson, Josh McDowell, Charles Colson, and many others. Starting in 1995, Dan led the marketing team for the immensely successful Left Behind series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. At its peak, the series was selling over two million copies of various products per month on its way to over 70 million copies to date.
Later he worked as publisher for two audio publishing companies and as a consultant with ministries and publishers on their publishing programs.
Dan has served on the executive board of ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association), the trade association for Christian publishers. In addition, he is a founding member of the advisory board of the Christy Awards and continues to be involved in training and mentoring Christian publishers around the world. He has been a presenter multiple times at the LittWorld conference held in different countries. (Here is a link to a video of Dan speaking on the basics of marketing at LittWorld in Nairobi.)
Dan is a graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in communications, is married to Carol, and they have four grown children. He works from his office in Wheaton, IL.
We will be adjusting our blog-post schedule starting this week.
I will continue to post every Monday. Every other Tuesday will be an episode of The Christian Publishing Show podcast hosted by Thomas Umstattd, Jr. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Tamela, Bob, and Dan will rotate their posts. Fun Fridays will continue to post on … Fridays (?!).
The next four blog posts will have each of us revisit the question “What am I looking for?”
I am so very excited to have Dan with us again. We have an incredible team with expertise in all facets of the industry: writer, bookseller, editor, marketer, agent, executive management, and publisher.
