Author or Writer -- Which Are You?

Recently, I decided to change my Facebook author page from “Patty Seitz, Writer & Blogger,” to “Patty Seitz, Author.” The main reason I did this was because I wanted to remove blogger from the title. There’s the Facebook blogger or group blogger whose focus is promoting and reviewing books, and then there’s the diary-type blogger. I am the latter, which if you follow my blog, you know is about my medical transcription career and transition into becoming a writer—or author. So which is it?  When I think of the term author, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, or Louisa May Alcott come to mind. I don’t feel I’m a terrible writer, but I also know I don’t come close to their caliber of writing. I thought the best way to figure this out was to research both terms. As it turns out, there is a difference.

 

A writer is someone who takes someone else's idea and creates an article or even a book, such as a biography. If you didn’t originate the idea or plot, then you are the writer of the piece.  If your work is your idea, you developed the plot and the content, it is published, then you become the author. What I found interesting is that if you write something, even if it’s an entire novel, but you don’t publish it, then technically you are the writer of that book. If you do publish it, you become the author.

Whether you are the writer of a piece or the author, in both instances, you must have good writing skills in the way of grammar and punctuation, word usage (such as knowing the difference with sound-alikes, which I’ll touch on in a later post).  If you write just for the simple joy of writing, but you don’t plan to ever publish your work, obviously there is nothing wrong with that.  Even so, you should always care about the quality. As I have mentioned in previous posts, it’s not about having a 100% error-free document. Even with the most famous of authors, I have seen errors in their work; certainly not many, but usually I have caught a few. Quality should always be a high priority.

Now having explained the above, when it comes right down to it, I don’t feel it matters which title you prefer. When someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them I’m a writer. But I also let them know I do have published works. I doubt they would care if I went into a dialogue about the difference between author versus writer. So use whatever term works for you and what you are comfortable with. I don’t think anyone will be confused.  

Thanks for hanging out! Keep writing, keep reading, and enjoy your day.