Author & Agent Interview: Makana Yamamoto and Keir Alekseii

Today, we are thrilled to be interviewing Makana Yamamoto, Kanaka Maoli author of forthcoming Hammajang Luck, and their literary agent, Keir Alekseii. More about Makana  can be found on their website and more about Keir can be found on her website.

You can add Makana Yamamoto's adult science fiction novel, Hammajang Luck, to your Goodreads here, or to your Storygraph here.

We started this Author & Agent blog series to spotlight Pacific Islander creators and their agents for Asian and Pacific Islander month. Our hope is that this series will inspire other Pacific Islanders interested in pursuing traditional publishing as creators or as agents! As we learned in the creation of our website, there is not a single Pacific Islander agent, and we hope to see that change.

Thank you for joining us!

Makana's Interview

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and the project for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?

I'm Makana! I am hapa haole and kānaka maoli, born on Maui and raised for half my life on the Mainland and the other half in Hawaiʻi. I'm also a māhū lesbian, living with my wife and two cats. I live in Massachusetts right now, but I still consider Maui home. Outside of writing I love to read, play video games and board games, DM tabletop roleplaying games, and cook (especially all my favorites from home).

I found representation with what is now my debut novel, Hammajang Luck. It's a cyberpunk heist featuring a misfit crew of lesbian thieves trying to take down a trillionaire tech god (think Jeff Bezos but he's a cyborg). My original inspiration was a tweet about childhood friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, and from there it morphed into a story about two backstabbing thieves. It started off as a fun heist with a crew of sexy lesbians, but grew into a story about family, blood and found, home and culture, and love and betrayal. The setting is hugely inspired by my upbringing in Hawaiʻi, where the Hawaiian diaspora has been scattered to the stars. I wanted to see more sci-fi with lesbians and Hawaiians, so I wrote a sci-fi about a Hawaiian lesbian!

What resources did you use to compile your list of agents to query? What criteria did you use to build your list? (If you didn’t query traditionally, please share how you and your agent signed together instead)

I used a couple of different resources! I searched agents that rep'd sci-fi on the Literary Agents of Color database, browsed Query Tracker, and looked up the agents of some of the authors that had similar books to mine. I ended up with sort of a hybrid approach between cold querying and pitch events on Twitter. Ultimately I signed with Keir through APIpit.

Did you tailor your query to each agent?

I did! I included details from their manuscript wish lists that I thought matched my manuscript and included any additional information that might be of interest to that particular agent.

What about Keir made you query her?

Keir's MSWL had a lot of overlap with Hammajang Luck, and I really liked her description of her agenting style. I also have enormous respect for Azantian Literary Agency, so that was a plus!

What advice would you give creators looking for representation?

My advice is to try and not take rejection personally, or as a reflection of your talent and hard work. There are so many factors that go into an agent's decision to request or offer, and it's not necessarily because you did anything wrong. Don't pick apart every rejection, because rejection is just part of the industry. Try to send it and forget it as much as possible! Keep working on your other projects, and hele on.

When Keir offered, what made you decide to sign with her? What criteria did you consider?

Keir and I hit it off immediately--we were on the offer call for 2 hours! Keir was so enthusiastic and effusive about the book, I really got the sense she cared about it and loved it. She also had invaluable insight and a rock solid plan for submission, which made me feel confident in her ability to get the MS into shape and pitch it to editors. I was looking for agents who were passionate about the book, aligned with me in their editorial vision, and had a plan for sub. All of which Keir had in spades!

What advice would you give to Pacific Islander creators looking for agents?

Don't be afraid to lean into your experience and culture! I really thought that I would be pressured into watering down the Hawaiian elements of my book, but ultimately it was what my agent and editors loved most about it. If someone tries to change your story or police your voice, that's a sign you don't want to work with them anyway! There are people out there that are hungry for stories like ours, don't compromise your vision just to fit into "marketability." Your authenticity will be rewarded!

How long have you been signed together? What’s your favorite thing about Keir?

I signed with Keir in July of 2022, so almost 2 years! I love that Keir is such a fierce advocate for me. She never lets me settle for less than what I deserve, and I appreciate that so much about her.

Keir's Interview

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What categories and genres do you represent? What do you love about agenting?

I'm born and bred in Trinidad & Tobago, where I still live. I'm also an avid SFF reader and have been all my life, so it's no surprise that I represent Adult & YA SFFH. I started reading a lot more YA contemporary while I was a mentee with Jen Azantian, and I represent that, as well. 

There is SO MUCH I love about agenting! I love my clients most of all but I think every agent has a fondness for their clients. While I was growing up I used to tell my family that my dream job was "bookworm" and I would get paid to read books. I'm from the Global South so entering publishing as a career was just not possible or likely until recently. I'm not a full time agent yet, but I'm on my way to realising the dream. I guess that's another thing I love: all the books! All the time! And I get to help my clients shape these books and find "homes" with different publishers. It's a pleasure to read books I love and help my authors to share them with the world. 

What do you look for in a query letter?

On a clinical/numbers side, I'm looking at the metadata: is this a genre and age category I rep, are the vibes (told through comps, usually) for me, is the wordcount reasonable for the age category and genre, etc. Once I get to the blurb I'm looking for direction. Is there a clear plot, is a character arc evident, what are the stakes? What actually happens in this book? And then, am I interested in this plot/character arc, and so on. I will say though, that I fully acknowledge query writing and novel writing are different skillsets and I don't make a judgement based on the query only. I will always read the pages, sometimes before I even look at the query. 

Do you ask for any pages with a query letter? What do you look for when you're reading those pages?

For a regular cold query I ask for the first 10 pages, but for a query that I solicit through a pitch event or showcase, I ask for the first 25. I'm definitely looking for voice and character first. It's hard to describe what that looks like in just ten pages, because it's so variable from story to story, writer to writer. To give it a go, I'd say the voice has to be consistent and clear with an evident personality behind it. I also have to feel invested in the character on page. The books that rise to the top fastest also have clear story or plot starting in those first ten, as well.

Any pet peeves when it comes to query letters and/or pages? Any dos and don’ts?

My pet peeve is definitely infodumping. I'm also not into dialogue or action that has no context or emotional grounding. Infodumping through dialogue, also not for me. I'm not into pages that start with assault or gratuitous violence. This is applicable to requested pages moreso than with the query letter, but when I'm reading the first hundred pages and there's no variation in pace, that's also not for me. I think a lot of folks don't realise that a steady pace for that long isn't a good thing because if there's no variation you'll end up with a flat line. 

Do you have a Manuscript Wishlist? What sort of projects are you hoping to find in your inbox? Any specific stories you’d love to see from Pacific Islander creators?

Yes! You can find it on my agency profile at the Azantian website, and on my website as well. The joke among my clients is that my brand is "queer rage," and "sapphic angst" but... I think it's not really a joke anymore lol. Though I do have a few stories that are just off-center of these two descriptions, they still have themes of anti-capitalism, anti-colonialism and generally a strong social commentary while still being focused on individuals. The stories that grab me most are the ones with personal stakes rather than world-ending ones. The stories where the rest of the world will keep moving, regardless of what happens to our main character and/or crew. To be clear, I'm not opposed to world-ending stakes, but I enjoy them more when they're tied to personal ones. We don't have enough SFFH from Pacific Islanders on the shelf, so I'd love to see more of that in my inbox, especially Horror and Science Fiction. I'd love work that is in dialogue with cultures, communities and languages, but anchored in the story of a single individual and their family, found or otherwise. 

What about Makana's project grabbed your attention? What about Makana as a client?

Makana's pages were a fantastic example of voice, character and story, all in the first ten pages. In their case, Edie's personality, the heist component of Hammajang Luck and the rocky past between Edie and Angel are evident very quickly. Makana was the first person I offered rep to and I went in knowing nothing about them except what I saw from Twitter, which included their profile picture of Salem the cat, from the old Sabrina, I want to say. I could be wrong. On the call, I thought we had a great vibe and we valued a lot of the same things in books and in life. It was really a delightful experience!

What qualities do you look for in a potential client?

The vibes and values are definitely a huge part of it. I feel like I'm really open on social media and such about who I am and what I care about, so I expect that people don't often query me if they aren't interested in working with someone who has those values and opinions. On the call, I'm interested in learning if we align on our goals in publishing, what they're looking for in an agent (and if I can provide that), seeing if we have the same vision for the book and if our editorial styles will match with each other. Basically, I'm looking for a good business partner as well as a good writer and someone I think I'd get along with on a personal level. As an early-career agent, every client I take on is someone who's building a career with me. It's important that we have a strong rapport, transparency and are overall good business partners to each other.

Any advice for querying creators?

Don't sweat the small stuff! Querying is so hard, please don't cry over a typo or something equally tiny. I mean, yes, do your best to proofread and what not but good work really speaks for itself. I definitely have offered rep to authors who had typos and minor continuity problems in their book that were evidently revision related. Also, give newer agents a chance! You definitely want to look for reputable agencies with senior agents that have experience and who are mentoring their juniors, but a junior agent with no sales might still be the best agent for you and your book. 

Any advice for aspiring agents?

Be prepared for the work, and be honest about what you can handle. It takes a lot of self-awareness to manage your workload while agenting, especially if you're starting off commission-only and have to manage a day job on top of long hours reading the inbox, editing and preparing for sub. At the beginning you might have a lot of time to dedicate to the inbox, but don't let that availability trick you into taking on more clients than you can handle. I was very fortunate to have a seasonal day job that allowed me lots of editing time at certain periods of the year, but ask any of my clients and they will tell you I was exhausted to the point of being MIA in the last quarter. The key is that I was upfront and honest about that, so we had realistic expectations of what I could accomplish during that time. If you can find your rhythm and balance, this job really is everything you've dreamed it could be!