I absolutely cannot stand it when someone calls me an author. I am not an author, I am a writer. Let's talk about the difference between the two, shall we?
When it's okay to call a writer an author: When you're reading something they wrote and you say something about the AUTHOR of the piece feeling a certain way, writing a certain way, or anything along those lines.
That's basically the only exception. Now, you may pose the question "What's the difference between an author and a writer? Here's my answer: A publishing contract.
Until you're published, you're a writer. An author is someone that has their name out there and it's attached to a book, a poem, a newspaper article.
There was this girl in Power of the Pen, and one day she said "I'm an author...I write things." I wanted to tell her that she's not an author. Yes, she's a good writer - very detailed and she knows her stuff - but she's by no means an author. On my other blog in my introduction post I said that I would never claim to be an expert or even an author. I've had questions about not considering myself an author. But I don't. People, don't you see? Until I'm published I will not - never - refer to myself as an author. And even then, I might still refer to myself as a writer. Because that's what I am, I write. I'd be the author of my books, but I'm still a writer.
Does this make sense to anybody else but me?
With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired
2 comments:
Does having your work published in a college newspaper make you and author?
@JP- Hmmmm I suppose you're an author, of that work. See, I face the same line of confusion, only JR high instead of college. In "Writing Fiction For Dummies" they talk about making the jump from writer to author and 'becoming the author you've always wanted to be'. But I'm still pretty unclear on this matter.
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