When Do You Become An Author?

The debate about whether a person is an author or a writer seems to come up frequently. And it is often in the context of whether a person has the right to call themselves an author or a writer.

It seems like a silly argument to be having, but when the self-doubt monster is involved, those words carry significance.

In today’s post, I want to explore the subtle differences between what it means to be a writer vs an author. And I want to explore when a person makes the transition from one to the other.

It’s a Matter of Definition

If you are familiar with my ramblings, then you will know that I strongly believe that a writer is anyone who goes through the motions of writing. However, an author doesn’t necessarily write but rather has written a particular body of work. And the dictionary agrees with me.

According to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, a writer is “one that writes” (I want to change that to “one who writes,” but we move on). An author is “one that originates or creates” or is “the writer of a literary work (as a book).”

Based on these definitions, I stand strong in my belief that a writer is a person who writes. I despise the term aspiring writer, because there is no aspiring about it. You either write or you don’t. It’s that simple.

However, the transition to author is not as clear-cut.

So, exactly when does a writer become an author?

A Discussion on Twitter from Years Ago

In 2018, I had a discussion on Twitter about this very topic. I had encountered a writer who on their bio had the following:

Your not a writer until your published.

For the moment, I want to ignore the grammar. I want you to focus on the underlining thoughts that went into that bio.

From that bio alone, it is so obvious that the writer didn’t view themselves as a writer, simply because they were pre-published. I was saddened when I saw this, because it felt like the writer had given up before they had even started, but there were others who felt a little confused about this too.

At the time, Michael Mammy was getting ready to release his first novel Planetside. It was only weeks away from release, but according to the unfortunate bio listing, Mammy didn’t have the right to call himself a writer, let alone an author, because his book had yet to be published, even though the release date was only weeks away.

Of course, as far as I was concerned, Michael Mammy was, and is, a writer, but as far as I saw it, he was an author too. The simple fact that he had the promise of publication, with a completed manuscript, made him an author. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, he was an author well and truly before he got that publication deal.

A Matter of Definition and Law

Remember that the definition of an author is “one that originates or creates” or is “the writer of a literary work (as a book).” The way I interpret this, the moment you have completed a manuscript, putting it into a tangible form, you’re an author.

And the law agrees with me.

Within international copyright law, the moment you put your ideas and thoughts to paper—or digital pixel as is the case most often these days—you are covered under copyright laws as the author of that piece. This is even in the US, folks. You DO NOT need to have the registered piece of paper to own the copyright of a manuscript.

Within US law, the registration process gives you additional powers to sue a person for infringement. You need that registered copyright to be entitled to any compensation (which is part of the mess associated with the 2025 Anthropic AI case settlement). However, you still own the copyright without that registration.

If this was not the case, then how could you swear that you own the copyright to those short stories that you might submit to literary magazines?

The fact that you wrote that story makes you the author of that story and gives you the copyright, unless you sign your copyright over to another person or wrote that piece on commission (in other words, you were contracted to create that specific body of work). But even if someone else owns the copyright, you’re still the author!

(FYI, copyright of commissioned works is an interesting area. Technically, book covers are commissioned works, and the person who commissioned the book cover owns the copyright of that book cover. But the designer of the book cover is still the artist involved. Nothing can change that.)

So, if the law sees you as the author of a piece of writing, whether it is published or not, why do the purists within certain writing circles insist that you’re not an author until something is actually published? And why do we have people who insist that you’re not a writer until you’re published? Being a writer and an author is NOT the same thing.

We’re just going to ignore the writer statement for the rest of this post and attempt to focus on the question of when a writer becomes an author.

Meaning of Published

Since some of this argument seems to be tied up with the concept of what it means to be published, let’s take a look at that.

The practical definition of published has become a little muddled, thanks to the digital age, but in simple terms, something is published when it has been “disseminated to the public or produced and released for distribution.”

(Yeah, if you haven’t figured it out for yourself, that’s the dictionary definition.)

But what does this mean practically?

Well… A work is published if it is available for the public to read, regardless of where that work has been placed. This means that your writing is published if you have posted it on Wattpad, Substack, Medium, your personal blog, or any other site that can be accessed by the public. Being published is not restricted to just books, magazines, and newspapers.

As such, if a person wishes to insist that you can’t call yourself an author (or a writer) until something is published, then just post a blog post somewhere, and Bob’s your uncle, you’re an author. (You’re a writer too, but hey…)

Do you see how silly this whole situation is?

Just to confuse things (because we can), a body of work is not necessarily published if it has been posted on a site that requires a membership login to access, simply because the work is not available to the public. So, if a writer elects to post their chapters on a critique site (one that requires membership logins), then their work is not classified as published. Even posting on Patreon behind a membership firewall is not classified as published (though some might argue differently).

Calling Yourself an Author is a Choice

For me, if you have written something that is in a form that you would be happy to share with others, then you are the author of that piece, whatever it is. Whether you choose to call yourself an author or not is entirely up to you. That is your choice.

(But dudes, you’re still a writer because you’re writing. Right?)

As for myself, I’m an author of particular pieces, both nonfiction and fiction. But that is not what I choose to focus on. I choose to concentrate my efforts and identity on the fact that I’m a writer and writing coach.

I write every day, or at least I try to. And my training as an editor has allowed me to help other writers to take their writing to the next level.

In reality, titles such as author, writer, and editor are just titles that only have meaning if we give meaning to them. It doesn’t make you any less of a writer if you choose not to call yourself by the title of author even after you have a few publications under your belt.

But part of this argument is the recognition that an author is not necessarily one who practices the art of writing. Hence, an author is not necessarily a writer.

If you write, you have the right to call yourself a writer. No one can take that away from you. But you can call yourself an author at any time, because you are the author of a particular body of work.

So, go on and tell me that you’re a writer. Because that is what I want to hear.