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Bright Literary Agency / Bright Group International Ltd.

profen4

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profen4

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No the Bright ACADEMY and the Bright AGENCY are two different things. The Bright AGENCY agents have no last names.

Ah, but one of the agents for the Bright academy is also with the Bright agency - I just looked at one of them. cursory glance. you're right, the others don't have full names.
 

Torgo

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The Bright Agency is a perfectly legit illustration agency I have dealt with many times.

Ellie Wharton is no longer with them, though.

Should clarify: The Bright Academy is a move into representation of authors; their core business for years has been artists, but they have a literary arm now.
 
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Thedrellum

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PM turns up nothing for either Ellie Wharton or Vicki Willden-Lebrecht.

Wharton worked in International Rights with Meadowside Books, but Willden-Lebrecht has no experience in publishing whatsoever -- at least there's none listed on their website, where you'd expect they would tout all of their credentials.
 

Torgo

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PM turns up nothing for either Ellie Wharton or Vicki Willden-Lebrecht.

Wharton worked in International Rights with Meadowside Books, but Willden-Lebrecht has no experience in publishing whatsoever -- at least there's none listed on their website, where you'd expect they would tout all of their credentials.

Hello. I am here to tell you that Vicki Willden-Lebrecht has been representing illustrators for years. I know her personally, I have commissioned her illustrators plenty of times, and she has plenty of experience of publishing - as an agent, rather than as a publisher, sure. If you are an artist looking for representation, the Bright Agency is completely legit and does a lot of business.

The expansion into literary agency is very recent, so if you are looking for someone to represent your text, there are probably more obvious choices at this point.
 

Thedrellum

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Empress Awesome, I'd say pass on them for now and wait to see what they turn up with in terms of sales in the next six months.

Torgo, I didn't mean to imply that Willden-Lebrecht had no experience whatsoever. As you say, the literary side is relatively recent, and she doesn't appear to have any experience representing literary properties which, IMO, has to be a different ballgame than representing illustrators.

Her experience as an agent for illustrators is a step towards making me feel at ease, though I wonder why she doesn't list that in the bio on the website.
 

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Bright Group International

This agency, also referred to as "The Bright Agency" or "The Bright Group," responded to a query I sent regarding my children's illustrated book. They seemed quite anxious to look at the power point presentation the artist I'm working with set up, which has decidedly not been the case with other agencies/publishers (usually don't respond or send a form rejection).

Their web site really doesn't offer much info. about sales, and seems focused on the illustrations (they are specialists who work with illustrators, but assured me they definitely do work with writers as well). Here's the link:

http://http://thebrightagency.com/

I couldn't find any previous discussions about this group, so any information anyone can give me would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
 

Bright Group

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Hello from The Bright Literary Agency

Hi AW’ers!

We're posting in this thread so we can answer your questions and tell you a bit more about us. We’ll aim to check back often, so any further questions please post below.


What is Bright Group International?

The Bright Agency was set up in 2003 by Vicki Willden-Lebrecht after she spotted a gap in the market for developing unpublished talented illustrators. The agency grew from strength to strength and in 2010 Vicki set up Bright Group International, a children’s content development agency, representing authors, artists and brands.

Bright Group International now has 17 full time staff including sales and literary agents, an art director and a marketing team. We have the following divisions covering UK, US, Asia and Australasia:
  • The Bright Literary Agency
  • The Bright Agency
  • Bright Art Licensing
  • Bright and Beyond
  • Bright Digital
Bright represents some of the biggest names in children’s illustration and a number of award winning author/illustrators including Sue Hendra, the author of Barry the Fish with Fingers. Barry was the fastest selling picture book in the last 5 years and its success bred a sequel, various spin-off books and a TV deal.


What is the Bright Literary Academy? What is The Bright Literary Agency?

The Bright Literary Academy was born out of our picture book illustrators wanting to develop their writing, and requests from publishers for content. We had great success with this, for example with Rebecca Elliott, a talented author/illustrator who has won a number of awards. Her fantastic picture book Zoo Girl (Lion Hudson) is on the long list for the 2012 Kate Greenway Medal.

With successes like these, the natural progression for the agency was to move into fiction, so we rebranded as The Bright Literary Agency and started to bring on board fiction and picture book authors, not just author/illustrators. One of these, includes Ali Cronin, the author of the Skins novel (Hodder), who now has an exciting six book teenage fiction series with Puffin.

We will have further information about us on our website, but this is currently being renovated. We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as the new site is launched.


Who are Bright Literary Agency’s Agents?

Lauren Holowaty –Beginning her children’s book career over 10 years ago, Lauren gained a wealth of editorial, publishing and licensing experience, as a writer and editor at top publishing houses. Having written hundreds of children’s books, and worked with award-winning names, she has an eye for recognizing talent and prize-winning masterpieces,.

Gemma Cooper – Gemma has previously worked at literary agencies in both London and New York, and brings with her a wealth of children's book knowledge and expertise. Her aim is to expand both our picture book and fiction author portfolio and continue to build on its successes.



Why choose Bright Literary Agency?
  • Our key focus is the development of new authors. We’ll use our editorial experience to help you make your manuscript shine.
  • As a fairly new agency, we are hungry and eager to get your book published.
  • We can give writers the opportunity to collaborate with our illustrators on projects.
  • We know you want to build a career, so we can offer you work for hire or smaller projects that can allow you to build your writing portfolio, while you’re waiting for that all-important deal

How to submit to The Bright Literary Agency?

We accept email submissions. Please send us the first 3 chapters plus a synopsis or the full text if your submission is a picture book to [email protected]

Please send these as .doc or .pdf attachments and add a short cover letter to your email. We do not accept paper submissions.


Do I have to be an illustrator to join The Bright Literary Agency?

No. We are looking for children’s book authors. We are still keen to hear from author/illustrators as well.

If you are an illustrator, please submit to The Bright Agency. Please send 10 – 12 low res jpeg samples as attachments to [email protected]

 

Bright Group

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New website and blog launch!

As promised in our last post, just coming back to announce the launch of our new website and new blog.

Website with submission information: www.brightliteraryagency.com

New blog - with a launch competition to with a critique from our literary agent, Gemma Cooper:
http://brightliteraryagency.blogspot.com/

Next post will be what we are looking for in submissions. As before, happy to answer any questions in this thread as well.
 

SimoneW

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I was considering submitting to this agency (they have clearly grown since 2011) but am wary of the fact they haven't blogged or Tweeted since 2016. Does anyone have more up to date information than the above from 2011, please?
 

Debbie V

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It looks like the website is under construction for this agency again. Lauren and Gemma don't seem to still be with Bright. This does not look promising.
 
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CaoPaux

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Blog is gone. Lit site still under construction, and Int'l site redirects to illustrators'.