What is the difference between a writer and an author?

I was and would always be a writer by heart. But the day I got published, I became an author.

Yours truly

That’s what is primarily the starkest difference between a writer and an author. So an author will always be a writer but a writer becomes an author only when he gets published.

Although in the common parlance, they are interchangeably used.

So let’s understand who is a writer?

A writer is someone who writes for the very reason of writing. He may write for himself or for others who want him to write. He uses his writing and linguistic skills to put up a piece together. He may be a blogger, journalist, magazine writer, or writer of books. Most of the writers write to earn their livelihood from their art of writing. They may or may not want to get published.

An author is someone who writes for his love for writing and gets published. You find his books, fiction or non-fiction in the stores. He may or may not begin with the goal of making money out of it. But slowly he does make money. Although not many make even a decent amount of money. Very few are able to earn their livelihood out of it.

Another, difference which I feel is that writers don’t write out their creative or original ideas, whereas authors basically do that only. Authors create a premise, a structure, a flow, plots, imagine scenes, and put them in black and white.

One thing is clear, writer or author, both of them are masters at weaving words together.

If you want to become an author or learn the art of writing, keep a tab of this blog. A lot is coming up.