Steve Laube, president of The Steve Laube Agency, has announced the hiring of Dan Balow as director of publishing development and literary agent.

“I’ve been looking for ways to increase the services our agency provides to current and potential clients,” Laube said. “By adding Dan to our agency, we can expand our role in helping to maximize our client’s sales, work with ministries to develop their publishing efforts and expand our reach internationally. Dan’s strengths are his understanding of book marketing, what it takes to be successful in the current publishing environment and how all the pieces of the publishing ‘puzzle’ fit together. All in all, it helps us to fulfill our mission to help change the world, word by word.”

A 30-year veteran of Christian publishing, Balow was director of marketing for Tyndale House Publishers working with top authors, including Francine Rivers, James Dobson, Josh McDowell, Charles Colson. Starting in 1995, Balow led the marketing team for the “Left Behind” series by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. Eventually devoting most of his time to the effort, he took on the role of director of business development for the series, and along with marketing worked in licensing and product development.

In 2002, he added the role of director of international publishing for Tyndale, and later, became director of research and analysis. In recent years, he has worked as publisher for two audiobook companies and has consulted with ministries and publishers on their publishing programs.

Balow has served on the executive board of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. He is a founding member of the advisory board of the Christy Awards and also is involved in training and mentoring Christian publishers around the world. He was a presenter in marketing and digital publishing at the 2012 LittWorld conference in Nairobi, Kenya, and will be presenting similar sessions to publishers in Ghana next month.

He will be working with the agency from his office in Wheaton, Ill.