Expressing concern that its Left Behind series is falling behind, Tyndale House announced recently a contract with Tekno Books to produce two spin-offs of the popular series. Dan Balow, director of business development at Tyndale, told Publishers Weekly: "It was necessary to build in more product releases to extend the life of the line."

Since 1995, Tyndale has sold 55 million copies of the Left Behind books, but sales of older titles have fallen off since the series began publishing only one new book a year. Tyndale hopes the more frequent release of these related titles, which will look similar to the original books and will include characters such as Nicholae Carpathia, will pump life into sales for the whole series.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins will not write the new books, nor will their names appear on the covers. Mel Odom will write Apocalypse Dawn, the first installment in the military/thriller series, and Neesa Hart will write State Secrets, the first book in the political/thriller series. A third series featuring angels may emerge in 2004.