CHANTICLEER 10 QUESTION AUTHOR INTERVIEW SERIES

with Award-Winning Author, Jayson Adams

Author of the 2024 Cygnus Grand Prize Winner Ares

Hello friends! We have another wonderful interview for you today, with author Jayson Adams! His book Ares took home the Chanticleer 2024 CIBA Grand Prize Award in the Cygnus Division, and we are excited to share with you the steps he took to becoming an award-winning author and what he’s planning next.

Take a minute or two and get familiar with Jayson and his incredible journey to becoming award-winning author!

Chanti: Jayson, let’s start with your background. Tell us a little about yourself—have you always dreamed of being a novelist, or did writing come into your life in a different way?

Adams: I’ve been a science fiction fan since I was kid, but I had never really imagined myself writing novels. My passion leaned more toward computers. Even though they’re deeply technical, I saw the computer screen as a blank canvas—it was my creative outlet. I started several software companies and had the freedom to build whatever I could imagine.

About ten years ago, I joined Google as an engineer on the Chrome browser. Over time, I grew frustrated with the division of labor in that space: product marketers decided what the product should do, designers decided how it would look and feel, and engineers were expected to bring it all to life—no questions asked. A few years in, I realized I needed a new creative outlet and turned to writing. I figured that with enough practice and a relentless drive to learn the craft, I could eventually become a decent writer.

Chanti: We’ve definitely seen the shift from tech to writing frequently. That need for a creative outlet is undeniable. When it comes to the strengths you brought from your previous jobs to your new skills as a writer, can you talk about where you feel most confident and maybe offer some advice to anyone who struggles with that?

Adams: Coming up with interesting plot twists. My advice to anyone who struggles in that area is the same lesson I find myself relearning from time to time: just write. When I get stuck wondering what should happen next, if I force myself to sit down and write what I do know, the ideas start to flow. And more often than not, they’re ideas I never would’ve discovered if I hadn’t put something on the page.

Chanti: That’s such practical advice about pushing through the uncertainty! Your novel Ares has received incredible recognition. When did it really hit you that you’d become an author—not just someone who writes, but truly an author?

Adams: It really sank in after I published my second novel, Ares. My first novel, Infernum, was well received, but who could say if that was just a fluke. With Ares earning similar acclaim, I can’t deny it anymore: I’m a writer.

Chanti: Two successful novels definitely prove it wasn’t beginner’s luck! You’ve established yourself firmly in science fiction. Is that where you plan to stay, or do you explore other genres as well?

Adams: Broadly speaking, I write science fiction, but after publishing my second novel, I realized I’m straddling two sub-genres. Infernum is a space opera set a few hundred years in the future, while Ares is grounded sci-fi rooted in the near future. The tricky part is that fans of one don’t always enjoy the other. The novels I’m working on now lean toward grounded sci-fi, but I’ll likely return to space opera before long.

Chanti: Managing reader expectations across subgenres is a challenge! When it comes to your writing approach, are you someone who follows established storytelling conventions, or do you prefer to break the rules and forge your own path?

Adams: I follow the rules. They’re an unspoken set of agreements between author and reader that allow the reader to relax into a story. They signal what kind of world they’re entering, what matters, and what to expect. If I hand them something I’m calling a novel, they know it won’t fizzle out at 30,000 words. If I say it’s a mystery, they know there’ll be resolution. Following the rules doesn’t make you predicable, it makes you trustworthy.

I once read The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons. The bulk of the book was the main character drifting from one random situation to the next. I kept waiting for a through line—some deeper meaning or connection to emerge. But all those events turned out to be filler, just killing time until the ending, which was probably the whole reason Simmons wrote the book. He broke the rule that says everything in the story should matter. When events don’t connect or build toward something, the reader feels tricked. I was so frustrated, I actually threw the book away.

Chanti: That’s a compelling argument for honoring the reader contract! When you’re not crafting these intricate sci-fi worlds, how do you spend your time? What are your hobbies and interests outside of writing?

Adams: Outside of reading, most of my time goes into writing software. I’m currently building out an app idea, though my long-term goal is to leave the tech world behind and focus entirely on writing. I’m also an artist and plan to return to life drawing, something I’ve missed.

Copyright © 2000 Jayson Adams. All rights reserved.

Chanti: It sounds like creativity flows through everything you do! Writing is definitely a craft that requires constant learning. Which books on the craft of writing have been most helpful to you?

Adams: Understanding Show, Don’t Tell, by Janice Hardy. Before I read this book, I had a general understanding of show vs. tell. This book was fantastic as far as explaining all the different ways telling can creep into a section of prose.

I also love The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. Maass says that readers may not remember every plot point, but they’ll remember how a story made them feel. This is the power of emotionally resonant fiction. He does a great job of explaining how to tap into it on the page.

Chanti: Both of those sound incredibly valuable! Marketing can be one of the trickiest aspects of being an author. What strategies have you found most effective for selling books and building your readership?

Adams: A well-performing BookBub ad is incredibly valuable, but can be tricky to build. Ares has been out for awhile now, so Amazon lists about 100 other titles that readers also bought. I used ChatGPT to turn that list into a spreadsheet, with info like author, summary, and more, and then fed it back into ChatGPT to identify recurring themes and tropes that define an Ares reader.

From there, I built ad copy around four tropes that resonated the most. I also had ChatGPT identify authors from that list whose work aligned with each trope. Then I created BookBub ads for each trope that targeted fans of the corresponding authors. That approach was far more effective than my earlier “try this headline” style of experimentation.

Another thing I’ve explored is using negative reviews as a marketing tool—not to win over critics, but to help misaligned readers recognize the book may not be for them. I took screenshots of all my 1-, 2-, and 3-star reviews and fed them into ChatGPT, then asked it to gently distill the criticisms. (Screenshots let me avoid even glancing at what might be painful feedback, while still giving the AI everything it needed.) My goal was to add a line to the book description that would help readers who probably wouldn’t like the book self-select out.

From that effort, I learned that many of Ares’s low-star reviews came from people who expected hard sci-fi and were disappointed to get something that leaned more toward mystery/thriller instead. ChatGPT crafted a short blurb that lets potential readers know that if they’re looking for hard sci-fi, Ares may not be the book for them.

Chanti: That’s a genius use of AI for market research! I’m going to have to try that out! Looking ahead, what projects are you working on now? What can your readers look forward to next?

Adams: I started working on a sequel to Ares, called King of the Moon. It follows Commander Praviraj Anand and Lieutenant Jack Bremmer from the moonbase featured in that story. But along the way, I found myself pulled into a new, unrelated novel called The Quantum Mirror, which centers on a rescue mission to a decrepit Russian space station. I plan to finish both, though The Quantum Mirror will likely arrive first.

Chanti: We can’t wait for either of them! Ares was such a treat, and we can’t wait to read more! As we wrap this up, we’d love to end with some advice for readers: What’s the single most important thing a reader can do to support an author they enjoy?

Adams: If they enjoy a book, please, please, PLEASE leave a rating for it wherever they bought it. As a reader, I always look at the average rating, the number of stars, and the release date (how long it took to earn those stars). That alone tells you so much about a book’s appeal. Ratings may seem like a small thing, but they make a huge difference.

Thank you, Jayson, for sharing your writing journey with us and for creating thought-provoking, thrilling science fiction! 

Jayson Adams began his career as a tech entrepreneur, achieving his dream of starting a software company by the age of 30. He has worked for notable figures like Steve Jobs and has founded several successful startups, including one sold to Netscape. After a successful career in technology, he transitioned to writing science fiction around 2018, finding a new creative outlet in storytelling.

After traveling through Europe and taking up music, he returned to computers with another start-up. He is currently working on a sequel to his award-winning novel, Ares.