Brandon & Associates Literary Agents

From what I've been reading, any agent that is connected to a publisher in such a way tends to be a very bad conflict of interest. It's kind of equivalent to an agent being connected to an editing service. From their site:

BRANDON & ASSOCIATES literary agents were formed in mid 2007 to help overcome some of the genuine frustration and feeling of helplessness felt by so many writers trying to get their book published.

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Usually a tip that the person(s) who started the publisher couldn't get published the conventional way and thus think the system is 'broken' or 'unfair'.

In particular their feeling that no one cares enough about their work to read it properly. It is our policy at BRANDON & ASSOCIATES to read and reply to all emails within 48 hours whenever possible. Of course it will take us longer to read your whole manuscript but in most case we will give you an answer within 2 to 3 weeks.

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Bolded mine, seems to be playing on the myth that agents don't really read mss. But they do give a timeline to responses, so that's good. Whether it's realistic would depend on the number of queries they get.

BRANDON & ASSOCIATES hope to make the whole process of getting their client’s book published as stress free as possible while securing the best deal for the writer. At all times we shall have our client’s best interest in mind. However, it is a slow process. Writers should be aware that finding the right publisher might take us several months and then the publisher might take up to a year before the book appears in the High Street.

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Got to give them credit for being so straight. They're not hyping potential clients up to have unrealistic expectations.

The only thing that makes them sound iffy is the publishing thing at the bottom. Axe that, and they look all right. It would be nice to know who is behind it though, who the agents are and who started this.

This is an amateur agency, in my opinion. Red flags:

- No info on the actual agent or agent with the company. Reputable agencies have bios or CV's for their member agents.

- They have "a wide range of interests," and appear to accept pretty much any kind of fiction or nonfiction. Reputable agents specialize.

- They don't require that your ms. be in standard UK submission format (double-spaced on A4 paper). This is unprofessional.

- They are not only agents, they are publishers. A book by one of their authors is published by them. This is a major conflict of interest; if an agency can make money by publishing its clients' work itself, where's its incentive to submit to other publishers? Literary agents don't double as publishers, and vice versa.

- Other books listed on their website have been published by non-advance-paying micropresses--publishers a reputable agent wouldn't deal with--or were published prior to the agency's establishment. At least one is self-published.

- The one book with a recognizable publisher's name and a current pub date is Searching for Daddy by Christine Joanna Hart, from Hodder & Stoughton. If Brandon did sell this book, it's a good sale--but one good sale is not enough to offset the rest.

- Victoria

Oddly enough, I've just looked at their site, even before reading this thread. All sorts of little alarm bells were going off in my befuddled little brain.

I shan't bother querying them.

As of today:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica] It is our policy at BRANDON & ASSOCIATES to read and reply to all emails within 48 hours whenever possible. Of course it will take us longer to read your whole manuscript but in most cases we will give you an answer within 2 to 3 weeks. However, this approach has proved too sucessful and therefore we regret to say that we are unable to accept any new unsolicited submissions for the foreseeable future. [/FONT]

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Hello, I'm a new boy in town.
I see it's been a few months since this thread was active. I only came across it while checking out Brandons to try submitting my novel.
Whilst I'm aware of the possible conflicts of interests with agencies providing other editing and reading services for a fee, surely their offering to publish a book that they think has possibilities, but have been unable to place, is a good thing.... isn't it?
Obviously, for them, it's less of a gamble to sell it to a publisher, then rake in their 15%, if they can find a buyer. But if the work is a little edgy, or maybe a bit of a gamble, and they're prepared to take a risk because they think it's got merit, then they should be applauded for putting their money where their mouth is.
Too many good books don't get to feel the comforting warmth of the bookshelves because the publishing industry play it too 'safe' (While at the same time the shops are infested with tacky 'celebrity' and 'TV tie in' books written, if that's not too good a word, by PR people)
I could understand a little concern (well, OK...a lot) if they were asking the author to pay for publishing... that's what vanity publishers are for... but if they are publishing a couple of books a month at their own risk... and let's face it, it must be a risk, or we'd all get deals right away.. right?.... then why is that so bad?

I'm new to this submitting lark, so I'm prepared to bow to the greater knowledge of those of you that have ridden a few laps with the oil getting low, but I was fairly impressed with what they had to say on their site. Some of it made sense, and in the digital age, surely the conventions of presentation are less valid. The reader at the agency can 'double space' and change font size at the click of one of Mickey's relatives. His uncle Walt might be turning in his fridge at the march of CGI cartoons, but that's progress. I'd have never got around to writing the novel I'd been contemplating for so long, if I hadn't been given an old Mac, and told to learn how to use it.
What do you lot think..... I'd be interested to know...before my novel gets re classified as 'Historical'.

I'd say the Red Flags are still there. Don't sell yourself short by settling for a less-than-reputable agency.

On the other hand I have very little direct experience with this sort of thing, so I am not sure of the specific dangers in your case. You seem to be going the "well, why not route? What have I got to lose if they do turn out to be a poor agency?" I can't answer that.

WriterTrek said:

I'd say the Red Flags are still there. Don't sell yourself short by settling for a less-than-reputable agency.

On the other hand I have very little direct experience with this sort of thing, so I am not sure of the specific dangers in your case. You seem to be going the "well, why not route? What have I got to lose if they do turn out to be a poor agency?" I can't answer that.

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No, it's precisely because I don't want to go down that route that I asked for opinions, especially if anyone has had any dealings. After all, even 'The Inspira Group' can look good to the uninitiated.... I thought they looked good because they accept whole MSS as submissions.... till I checked them out.
Thanks though, for taking the time to respond.
I'm checking out the Áccent Press at the moment as well. They're a publisher that take direct submissions and seem to have a good reputation for sales, and from what I can glean from their website, they handle books with similar themes to my novel...... but it seems too good to be true,.. I'm a suspicious bugger and I don't like to get shafted.