The Publishing Life

A Brave Heart

By Dan Balowon June 24, 2014

The 2014 Christy Awards were held last night in Atlanta, Georgia. Check the Christy Award’s website for the winners and other information.

Three years ago in 2011, when the International Christian Retail Show was last held in Atlanta, the keynote speaker for the Christy Awards was Randall Wallace, who had a novel about to release from Tyndale House. Mr. Wallace is known for his writing and work in film. His screen play for the Academy Award winning “Braveheart” in 1995 launched a successful career. Since then, he has produced and/or directed the films: “We Were Soldiers,” “Secretariat,” “The Man in the Iron Mask,” “Pearl Harbor” and most recently, “Heaven is For Real.”

The last scene of “Braveheart” depicted the battle between the Scots and the army of England at Bannockburn, the defining moment in the Scottish war for independence from the English crown. The battle occurred on June 24, 1314…exactly seven hundred years ago today. So, what better time to connect some dots on this day after the Christy Awards and the anniversary of an historic battle. The emcee of the 2011 Christy Awards was Liz Curtis Higgs and if you click below, watch the emotional and poignant speech from Mr. Wallace as he speaks about the power of story in his life.

Randall Wallace Keynote Speech

A Matter of Experience

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 19, 2014

Sometimes I’ll have one of those days where I’m minding my own business, when I pick up the phone to discover the author on the other end of the line is irate. (No, this is not a rerun of an article from the 20th century. I do still have a land line for my office). “Ohhh, Tamela! I know that Hell is indeed located on Earth and where is it? It’s at my publisher’s …

Category: Book Business, Career, Communication, Tamela, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, Career, publishing, The Publishing Life

Actually, The World is Pretty Big

By Dan Balowon May 27, 2014

At one time or another, every one of us have remarked how small the world is, usually caused by meeting someone by chance and finding out that you both know a certain person, or went to school with the person, are both reading the same books, are fans of the same team, etc. But you might be surprised how a “small” view of the world can alter your entire perspective. I am not referring to a …

Category: Book Business, Branding, Dan, Get Published, Marketing, Platform, The Publishing Life, Trends, Writing CraftTag: publishing, The Publishing Life

What About Medium Stuff?

By Dan Balowon April 8, 2014

Today I stand in support of medium stuff. There is no argument that big important things deserve our undivided attention. There seems to be some disagreement over small stuff…do we sweat it or not? According to the Stan Jantz and Bruce Bickel’s book, God is in the Small Stuff, we probably need to be paying close attention to those things. I am concerned with those things in the middle…the medium …

Category: Book Business, Career, Dan, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, publishing, The Publishing Life

The Pessimist’s Guide to Things That Will Never Work

By Dan Balowon March 4, 2014

This is the first in a three-part series on attitudes toward work, specifically for people in publishing.

Today, I am writing about pessimism. If there were a book glorifying its virtues, it would be the title above. It would be a thousand pages long with an updated and expanded edition published annually.

Full disclosure…I became a baseball fan of the Chicago Cubs in 1966, a year when …

Category: Career, Dan, The Publishing LifeTag: Career

Did You Feel the Tremor in the Industry Last Week?

By Steve Laubeon March 3, 2014

by Steve Laube

I know what it is like to feel the earth move under my feet having experienced the '64 Alaska earthquake firsthand. (The above picture is from the neighborhood where we lived called Turnagain Arm.) Therefore I know the difference between a 9.2 Richter scale quake and a tremor that registers near 2.0 on the scale.

Last Thursday Amazon announced they were reducing the royalty …

Category: Book Business, E-Books, Get Published, Steve, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, E-Books, publishing

Basketball and Writing

By Dan Balowon February 25, 2014

Next week is March and that means basketball “March Madness” around the country. From high school to college, teams will compete in tournaments where excitement is at its peak.

One of my hobbies is to work as the official scorer for the Wheaton College (Illinois) men’s and women’s home basketball games. I started doing this back in the late 70’s, took some time away from it when our kids …

Category: Book Business, Career, Creativity, Dan, The Publishing Life, Writing CraftTag: Basketball, publishing, Writing Craft

Wanted: More Choir Members

By Dan Balowon February 11, 2014

Dan Balow

At some point in their writing career, many Christian authors express a desire to write a book that would reach the un-churched. That desire is a completely honorable and wonderful goal, just as any believer should desire to represent Christ in their lives in such a way that unbelievers would ask them questions about the hope that is in them.

However, the inference by such …

Category: Book Business, Creativity, Dan, Get Published, The Publishing Life, TrendsTag: Christian, publishing, Writers

And Another Thing, Your Baby is Ugly

By Dan Balowon February 4, 2014

Have you noticed how much of public and private discourse so quickly moves from a simple disagreement to a personal attack?

I was attending a sporting event not long ago and the people sitting around me in the stands seamlessly moved from displeasure how their team was performing to calling the players, coaches and referees all sorts of names that had nothing to do with how they …

Category: Book Business, Craft, Dan, Get Published, Rejection, The Publishing LifeTag: Rejection

Embracing Change

By Dan Balowon January 14, 2014

On September 3, 1967 the world changed. It was a day remembered for chaos and disillusionment, despair and confusion. No, it wasn’t because the last episode of “What’s My Line?” aired on U.S. television.

The above picture is what happened in Sweden the day the country switched from driving on the left to the right side of the road. Their neighbors, Norway and Finland had already changed, but …

Category: Book Business, Dan, E-Books, Get Published, The Publishing Life