New Author Podcast

This week, Jerry finally has the kind of update that makes a writer breathe like a human again: real progress. Book 3 is moving. He adds 13,970 words over the last two weeks, pushes the manuscript past 21,000 words, gets about a third of the way through the rewrite, and starts sounding like somebody who can actually see the road instead of just the potholes. Which is nice, because for a while ther...

This week, Jerry actually has real writing progress to report, which is nice, because lately Book 3 has felt like one long hostage situation involving outlines, rewrites, and editor notes. He adds 5,643 new words to Networking Murder , pushes his yearly total to 15,240, gets the green light from Super Editor Cee, and starts moving through the early chapters for real. So yes, the rewrite is still a...

This week, Jerry and Rich start out where all serious writing podcasts should: with World Cup fans losing their minds in America, Buc-ee’s getting the kind of free advertising money can’t buy, and the growing realization that half the internet is now just Europeans discovering that the United States is not, in fact, one long action-movie chase scene. So yes, before we get to books, there is a lot...

This week, Jerry and Rich both show up looking like they’ve been dragged behind their own projects for a few miles. Rich is getting swarmed at the library now that school’s out and kids are pouring in for summer programs and free lunches, while Jerry is staring down the reality that Book 3 is no longer a revision job. It’s a full rebuild. So yes, this one has that fun “everything is under control...

This week, Jerry and Rich show up for what Jerry calls “real podcasting,” which means no editing, a sagging microphone, and two writers trying to sound calm while both of them are standing in the middle of some very specific chaos. Jerry opens with the results of his recent promo run for Book 1: 98 total orders for the month, including 92 discounted copies of Book 1, 6 copies of Book 2, 1,037 page...

This week, Jerry is knee-deep in promo-stack numbers, Facebook ad stats, Amazon rankings, and the slow, humbling reality that book marketing rarely arrives like a fireworks show. Book 1 is in a Kindle Countdown deal, the promo sites are rolling, the emails are out, and the results are... fine. Not awful, not magical, and very much the kind of real-world author experience nobody puts on a motivatio...

This week’s episode is a shorter one, which in New Author Podcast terms means Jerry only reorganized half a novel instead of the whole publishing industry. He talks about taking a knife to Book 3, cutting scenes, moving key beats around, redefining the midpoint and pinch points, and finally starting to feel like the first half of the story has some real momentum instead of just politely standing t...

This week, Jerry shows up in a Star Wars shirt on May the Fourth, Rich brings the energy of a man enjoying spring fever a little too much, and the episode turns into a mix of writing therapy, publishing strategy, and the sort of side quests that somehow become the whole job. Jerry recaps the release aftermath for Book 2, the preorder setup for Book 3, the endless website and promo work, and the de...

This week, Jerry kicks things off on NFL Draft night in full Browns gear, ready to podcast, watch the draft, and somehow still pretend he’s focused. Rich opens with a writer personality quiz that includes Middlemarch , fountain pens, complicated mothers, and being from Ohio “in a very sad way,” which is honestly a strong start for two guys who then spend the next hour proving they absolutely do ha...

This week, Jerry and Rich return under storm clouds, weak internet, and the comforting glow of Jerry trying to watch The A-Team while podcasting like the professional he absolutely claims to be. Rich opens with the joy of spending two hours on the phone with Bank of America while dealing with his mother’s estate, which sounds exactly as fun as you’d imagine. Jerry counters by explaining that he is...

In this episode, Jerry somehow turns one busy release week into six separate side quests. He finishes revisions on Book 2, gets the covers in, pushes the release back two weeks, works through the final pass on Book 1.5, discovers his big TV has died after only 18 months, survives a rough Columbus sports weekend, and then casually drops the kind of news that probably should have come with its own d...

This week, Jerry is deep in the author bunker, trying to finish approximately seventeen publishing tasks at the same time. Book 1.5 is nearly done, Book 2 is buried under editor notes, Book 3 needs a preorder, covers are still in motion, front matter and back matter still exist to ruin a perfectly good afternoon, and the release calendar is getting close enough to feel personal. He walks through t...

This week on the New Author Podcast , Jerry and Rich kick things off with Midwest weather chaos, loud neighbors with louder trucks, and the annual tradition of dressing for four different seasons in a single week. From there, it’s back into the writing trenches. Jerry is deep into what he calls Revision Z , the final editing pass before sending his mystery novel to the editor. The plan: power thro...

This week’s episode opens with a generational crisis when Rich fails to immediately recognize 867-5309 . Jerry is deeply disappointed, though eventually forgiveness is granted after a brief cultural intervention involving Tommy Tutone. Once everyone recovers from that trauma, the conversation settles into the usual mix of writing progress, publishing logistics, and the never-ending list of things...

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 b...

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...

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: ⁠⁠jerry@jerryevanoff.com⁠⁠Instagram: @JerryEvanoffAuthorRich KacyEmail: ⁠⁠rich@richkacy.com⁠⁠Bluesk...

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 Evanoff Website: ⁠https://jerryevanoff.com⁠ Email: ⁠jerry@jerryevanoff.com⁠ Instagram: @JerryEvanoffAuthor Rich Kacy Email: ⁠rich@richkacy.com⁠ 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,”...

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 , compl...

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 wil...

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...

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 myster...

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...

Jerry has officially entered the “reading out loud to himself in a conference room” stage of editing Book 2—also known as the part where co-workers start to worry . He’s doing a final pass, adding words he swears he’s cutting, and preparing to hand it to his editor like a child presenting macaroni art and saying, “Look. I made novel.” Meanwhile, Rich hit 200,000+ words for the year, which means he...