This week on the New Author Podcast, Jerry and Rich attempt to solve the great modern writer dilemma:

Substack vs. MailerLite vs. BookFunnel vs. reality.

Jerry dives deep into whether Substack can integrate with BookFunnel, hunts for API roadmaps like a man searching for buried treasure, and contemplates manually deleting and re-uploading subscriber lists every week (before realizing that might be… mildly unhinged). The big question: can you grow on Substack without breaking your existing email system—or your sanity?

Rich approaches it from a different angle, focusing less on integrations and more on discoverability and community-building, because maybe the tech isn’t the point. Maybe the readers are.

They also talk about:

• Email automation strategies

• Early-access content ideas

• Unsubscribe gray areas (and why they make everyone nervous)

• Whether Substack even wants to play nicely with third-party tools

• Using ChatGPT to generate podcast titles and descriptions (yes, again)

It’s part marketing strategy, part tech frustration, and part two writers trying to build something sustainable without duct-taping five platforms together.

If you’ve wrestled with Substack, BookFunnel, email lists, or the eternal “how do I grow without breaking everything” question—this one’s for you.

📬 Contact InfoJerry Evanoff
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://jerryevanoff.com

Rich Kacy
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @KacyHimself

Rich is back after time away handling family matters, and the show settles into that familiar rhythm: a little life, a lot of writing, and the kind of honest “here’s where I’m stuck” talk that makes the work move again.

Jerry breaks down the biggest Book 2 overhaul he’s done so far—condensing cliffhanger split-chapters, trimming confusion, and rebuilding the opening so the story hooks earlier and cleaner. Word count drops hard, chapters get reorganized, and the editor’s notes keep steering Jerry away from over-complication and toward clarity the reader can follow.

They also dig into the gap between drafting and the work that comes after—why so many writers finish a draft and freeze, why editing can feel like the real craft, and how deadlines change everything once you finally commit to one.

Also: Jerry eats at warp speed, becomes a regular everywhere he writes (against his will), fights his writing app login problem, and buys an expensive golf club because winter makes people do strange things.

• Getting back to routine after time away

• Revision strategy: cutting, consolidating, and clarifying

• Avoiding “plot convenience” and over-complication

• Drafting vs. editing (and why people stall after draft one)

• Deadlines, momentum, and preparing for copyedit

• Building a writing app while AI tries to “help” by breaking things

Jerry Evanoff
Email: [email protected]
Website: jerryevanoff.com

Rich Kacy
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @KacyHimself

It's another Quick Hit as Jerry is alone again (naturally?). He'll take us through his lack of writing followed by his excitement for writing. He'll complain about the weather and tease some things he wants to talk with Rich about.Jerry EvanoffWebsite: ⁠⁠https://jerryevanoff.com⁠⁠Email: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠Instagram: @JerryEvanoffAuthorRich KacyEmail: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠Bluesky: @KacyHimself

It's a shorter episode this week, just Jerry as he takes us through his week, his struggles with his book 2 edit and how he's trying to get through it.

📬 Contact Info

Jerry EvanoffWebsite: ⁠https://jerryevanoff.com⁠Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠Instagram: @JerryEvanoffAuthor

Rich KacyEmail: ⁠[email protected]⁠Bluesky: @KacyHimself

Jerry and Rich return for Episode 341 of the New Author Podcast, kicking things off with internet gremlins, podcast intros no one listens to, and the universal dream of someday having too many ads.

From there, it’s a deep dive into the messy middle of writing life: Jerry walks through rebuilding a massive rewrite outline for Book 2, cutting chapters that didn’t work, fixing “plot conveniences,” and learning (again) why editors are both correct and emotionally devastating. He also shares how he’s using AI tools like ChatGPT and NotebookLM to summarize drafts, plan revisions, and even help build a custom writing app—with all the joy and chaos that comes with it.

Rich talks about juggling multiple genres, recovering from a brutal cold, navigating real-life stress, and trying to restart a writing routine while library schedules are apparently designed by caffeinated wildlife. There’s discussion of writing goals, why routines matter, the danger of never closing Scrivener, and whether setting goals actually motivates anyone at all.

It’s a long episode, but it’s honest, practical, and exactly what writing weeks really look like.

📬 Contact Info

Jerry Evanoff
Website: https://jerryevanoff.com
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @JerryEvanoffAuthor

Rich Kacy
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @KacyHimself

It’s the final New Author Podcast episode of 2025, and Jerry and Rich close the year the only way writers know how: exhausted, opinionated, and surrounded by unfinished plans that somehow still count as progress.

Jerry breaks down the reality of developmental edits—including why trying to make a murderer “sympathetic” may be a losing battle—and walks through a full Book 2 rewrite strategy, complete with chapter surgery, outline-first editing, and accepting that editors are almost always right (even when it hurts). He also logs 161,000+ words for the year, obsesses over a custom writing app, and sets ambitious but realistic 2026 writing, publishing, and financial goals.

Rich recaps a holiday road trip fueled by audiobooks and family tension, outlines a packed 2026 writing plan across thrillers, cozies, novellas, and short fiction, and explains why Substack might be the least-bad option for audience building right now. Along the way: libraries, fences, greenhouses, anxiety, early mornings, and the strange comfort of daylight slowly returning.

No spoilers. Plenty of process. And just enough self-awareness to survive January.

Jerry Evanoff
Website: https://jerryevanoff.com
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @jerrye25

Rich Kacy
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @KacyHimself

In Episode 339 of the New Author Podcast, Jerry Evanoff and Rich Kacy wrap up the year with a candid 2025 writing recap—what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised them along the way.

Jerry breaks down finishing his series, sending Book 2 off for a developmental edit, hitting (and missing) yearly goals, and why he deliberately paused marketing until more books are ready. Rich looks back on a wildly productive year that didn’t follow the plan at all—genre hopping, first drafts piling up, and why 2026 needs to be about finishing, not starting.

They also talk writers groups, book clubs, endings that don’t quite land, holiday slowdowns, financial goals, and the strange satisfaction of reviewing a year that didn’t go “right” but still went well.

This episode closes out 2025 and sets the stage for a focused 2026.

Jerry Evanoff
Website: https://jerryevanoff.com
Email: [email protected]

Rich Kacy
Email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @KacyHimself

This week, Jerry tries to podcast through a head cold while Rich wrestles a chicken-coop door, dislocates a knuckle, and still writes 3,331 words before most people finish breakfast. Naturally, that derails into a deep dive on Substack, reader newsletters, and whether either of them will ever understand how the platform actually works.

Jerry talks about Instagram reels, accidental viral dog videos, and why Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer might be a murder ballad. Rich falls down a Pringles rabbit hole and confesses he may or may not be raiding the library snack stash like a gremlin after hours.

Meanwhile, writing progress continues: Jerry preps to hand his manuscript off to his editor and plans a week of Chick-fil-A, Panera, and panic. Rich finishes his novel and immediately starts analyzing it with Claude because nothing says festive holiday spirit like 40 pages of AI critique.

Also covered:
• Traffic rage
• Gift-card Christmas shopping
• Trying to sleep with clogged sinuses
• Why ath-rin (aka Afrin) betrayed Jerry
• Planning for 2026 without crying
• A box of new PLAAY.com sports games that will absolutely tank Jerry’s productivity

If you like chaotic author energy, questionable health decisions, and two writers trying to out-nerd each other, you’re home.

Spotify Keywords / Tagswriting podcast, indie author, author life, fiction writing, self-publishing, revision process, editing, Substack for authors, pro writing aid, Claude AI, Instagram reels for writers, cozy mystery writing, productivity for writers, publishing journey, board game hobby, Plaay.com games

Jerry opens this one by botching the intro, confessing to eating Cocoa Pebbles for dinner, and then casually announcing he’s trying to enjoy January in Ohio while snow buries his driveway. So yeah, the bar is high.

In this episode of The New Author Podcast, Jerry and Rich catch up after 16 days and talk about:

• Writing & Editing Chaos

  • Jerry is in the home stretch on Book 2 of his murder mystery series, wrestling the climax chapters (40 & 41) into shape while Word reads the book back to him in a robot voice.

  • He’s using read-aloud for line edits, then planning a full Grammarly + ProWritingAid pass before sending the manuscript to his editor by December 14th.

  • Rich is 60k+ words into his Marlowe thriller, averaging huge 3k+ writing sessions on his good days, and accidentally turning his outline into a 100k monster. Dialogue bloat? Oh yes. Future-Rich will cut it.

• Process Talk: Word Count, Structure & Overwriting On Purpose

  • Jerry talks about hitting his yearly word-count goal and still pushing to draft at least one brand-new novel next year while primarily editing and publishing.

  • Rich explains why he’s deliberately overwriting now (all those side trails and conversations) so he can trim later and keep the good stuff—settings, emotions, subtext—while hacking away the “two people sitting in a room talking forever” problem.

• Tech & Tools: Read-Aloud, Headphones, and 11Labs Regret

  • Jerry moves from earbuds to Beats headphones and falls in love with letting Word read the whole novel to him, catching all the missing little words the brain smooths over.

  • He looks at 11Labs for text-to-speech, realizes the token system might not cover a full novel the way he wants, and backs away before his wallet cries harder than his characters.

• Marketing Panic: QR Codes, Reedsy & Cover Credits

  • Jerry discovers the harsh truth that some QR codes can “expire” depending on the service, panics, and drops $140 to keep his codes alive for a year—after he already printed notebooks and bookmarks that point to /next.

  • He dives into Reedsy looking for a legit, vetted marketing strategist who can help him plan a long-term launch strategy for his nine-book mystery series. So far? One partial hit, multiple declines, one ghosting.

  • On the plus side, he remembers he bought cover credits from 100Covers… twice. Result: six full cover credits in the bank. Book 3, 0.5, 1.5, and more are covered (pun absolutely intended).

• Board Games, Bowling Leagues & Black Friday Damage

  • Jerry goes hard on the PLAAY.com Black Friday sale: horse racing, hockey, bowling, and extra components for golf and baseball

  • Rich reminisces about terrifying long-haul drives loaded on creatine + bad coffee, hallucinating Rod Serling on the hood of the car back in the day. Perfect thriller-writer origin story.

• Life Stuff: Travel, Snow, Fantasy Football & Bureaucracy

  • Rich and his wife do a 17-hour overnight haul from Virginia to Louisiana towing a van, survive on stimulant coffee, and wake to DMV forms built on what appears to be the Ghost of Napoleon’s Civil Code.

  • Jerry fights “heart attack snow” on his driveway in Ohio, tries not to rage at winter before Christmas.

If you like hearing two working writers talk honestly about drafting too long, trimming too late, obsessing over word counts, buying way too many games, and trying to market an epic multi-book mystery series without losing their minds, this one’s for you.

Keywords (Spotify / SEO)
writing podcast, indie author podcast, self-publishing, mystery series, thriller writing, word count goals, editing process, read-aloud editing, Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Reedsy marketing, QR code mistake, 100Covers, Black Friday haul, PLAAY.com games, bowling league, fantasy football, long-haul road trip, library job, indie author life

Contact Us

Jerry Evanoff
Website: jerryevanoff.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: facebook.com/JerryEvanoffAuthor

Rich Kacy
Website: richkacy.com
Email: [email protected]

Episode 336 is basically a masterclass in how two writers can have wildly different weeks. Jerry opens the show by spotting something… unsettling… in his Amish neighbor’s window (because of course he does), but quickly shifts into his ongoing battle with the Great Read-Aloud Edit. He missed his chapter goal by one, panicked about his December 14 deadline, and discovered that Past Jerry was not the writer Present Jerry wishes he were. On the plus side, he’s halfway through writing the Book 2 climax and learning that reading your own prose out loud is both exhausting and humbling.

Rich, meanwhile, casually logs six writing days, 12,741 new thriller words, and keeps pacing for a possible 50K November—while also milling lumber and building farm gates, because why wouldn’t he?

There’s also a writers-group intervention, TikTok despair, and fantasy-football heartbreak, but the real focus this week is writing: goals, edits, deadlines, and keeping your sanity.

Contact Us

Jerry Evanoff
Website: https://jerryevanoff.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerryevanoffauthor

Rich Kacy
Website: https://www.richkacy.com
Email: [email protected]
Socials: @KacyHimself

Search Keywords / Tags

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