just because you have written a book does not make you an author

[typatterson67]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

I'm an author. Prove I'm not.

Isn't it funny how the silliest things make for the longest threads?

the thread started off well

a couple of points.

i am an author, a self published one. i did not go the route of sending bazillion letters to agents and publishers since i saw no value in inflicting punishment on myself.

the overwhelming majority of those who have read my book have liked it, and i am developing the first book in a series..of course the challenge is getting my book to rise above the noise and be heard and read by a wider audience.

i make enough from my books to treat myself occasionally to a big Mac, rather than a regular one

i also have a day job and when i am at my day job, and obviously my standing as an author cuts no ice there.

the point in all this, which has been made gazillion times before, is that i consider myself to be an author. if moonshot wants to refer me as not-an-author, her prerogative. doesn't bother me.

there were a couple of responses on publishing scientific papers.. my day job interfaces a lot with that domain.

a scientist or a researcher cannot just publish a paper - it has to go through a peer-review and approval process before being published in a journal.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by typatterson67

i am an author, a self published one. i did not go the route of sending bazillion letters to agents and publishers since i saw no value in inflicting punishment on myself.

I hope your book contains capital letters?

[typatterson67]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I hope your book contains capital letters?

yup. i have gotten it professionally edited, cover professionally done, etc. just because it is a SP book, doesn't mean it hasn't gone through the rigour of publishing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by typatterson67

yup. i have gotten it professionally edited, cover professionally done, etc. just because it is a SP book, doesn't mean it hasn't gone through the rigour of publishing.

Excellent. Too many authors don't do that. Sounds as if you're doing all the right things. Very best of luck with it.

[typatterson67]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Excellent. Too many authors don't do that. Sounds as if you're doing all the right things. Very best of luck with it.

thank you Harry. John Lescroart made an excellent point on Twitter a month back.

for most authors, Piracy is not the issue. Obscurity is.

that's all the more of an issue for us SP authors

[jandrew]

Originally Posted by typatterson67

...
there were a couple of responses on publishing scientific papers.. my day job interfaces a lot with that domain.

a scientist or a researcher cannot just publish a paper - it has to go through a peer-review and approval process before being published in a journal.

That is true, but I wonder if the peer review vetting process has much to say about the meaning of being "an author" as discussed in this thread.

In the first place, the primary concern in the peer review process of a scientific article is the quality and novelty of the research, not the writing.

Further, there can be a dozen authors listed on a scientific paper, most having had zero input on the writing of the article (authors of the research, not the article describing the research). Indeed, many times even the "lead author" hasn't written the paper but has assigned a junior member (grad student) of the research team to write up the research, and then they review and submit it -- lead author sometimes only means lead scientist (and oft times it really only means "advisor").

Lastly, as important as being published in refereed journals is in the scientific community, being an author of a refereed journal article is not really seen as making one a published author, it makes one a published scientist.

[moonshot]

Originally Posted by typatterson67

a couple of points.

i am an author, a self published one......

if moonshot wants to refer me as not-an-author, her prerogative. doesn't bother me.....

i have gotten it professionally edited, cover professionally done, etc. just because it is a SP book, doesn't mean it hasn't gone through the rigour of publishing.

Would you rather be in a 'category' of author with a professionally edited book for sale, which you have, or the category of 'those who have typed a few hundred pages of unedited words and uploaded it to Amazon' and want the status of author.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by moonshot

Would you rather be in a 'category' of author with a professionally edited book for sale, which you have, or the category of 'those who have typed a few hundred pages of unedited words and uploaded it to Amazon' and want the status of author.

'Author' is not a 'status'. It's a simple statement of fact: Books have authors, so a person who writes a book is an author. 'Best-selling author' is a status, 'Award-winning author' is a status, 'Highly-regarded author' is a status. The word 'author' implies none of these.

[moonshot]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

'Author' is not a 'status'. It's a simple statement of fact: Books have authors, so a person who writes a book is an author. 'Best-selling author' is a status, 'Award-winning author' is a status, 'Highly-regarded author' is a status. The word 'author' implies none of these.

Then it would be a good idea to somehow separate the 'author' who has spent some extra time, effort and money to get their book professionally edited etc. as typatterson67 did from the 'author' who has typed a few hundred pages and clicked it up to Amazon and stuck a price tag on it.

[alanHd]

And who's to be Judge, Jury, Executioner and decide what's good and bad. your idea of good might not match mine.

I'm in the belief that is up to the reader to decide, that's why we have reviews so people can leave feedback and the next person can use this to decide for themselves.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by moonshot

Then it would be a good idea to somehow separate the 'author' who has spent some extra time, effort and money to get their book professionally edited etc. as typatterson67 did from the 'author' who has typed a few hundred pages and clicked it up to Amazon and stuck a price tag on it.

There are good editors and bad editors. I do some editing on the side and took on a project for an author who had already spent 700 dollars on a professional editor. But there were a lot of typos that had not been cleaned up despite the copy editing that had supposedly been done. Anyone can say they have been edited. And they may have been edited. But putting the stamp of "edited" isn't going to automatically mean the basics are taken care of.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by moonshot

Then it would be a good idea to somehow separate the 'author' who has spent some extra time, effort and money to get their book professionally edited etc. as typatterson67 did from the 'author' who has typed a few hundred pages and clicked it up to Amazon and stuck a price tag on it.

We do need methods for telling good books from bad books. Fortunately, we already do have such methods. We can read critics and and reviews, best-seller lists and lists of award winners. We can read recommendations and listen to word of mouth. We can read blurbs and if we are still interested, we can read a sample. And if, after all that, we buy the book and don't like it we can get our money back.

If someone just typed up a couple hundred pages of crap, it's not going to be praised by critics, it's not going to be favorably reviewed, it's not going to sell many copies, it's not going to win awards, you're not going to have friends telling you how good the book is.

Do you truly find it so difficult to find books that are worth reading? Are you really unable to use these techniques to eliminate books you wouldn't like? A scarlet letter is not going to be placed in self-published books, no matter how much you might wish it. It's just not going to happen.

[jandrew]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

...
Do you truly find it so difficult to find books that are worth reading? Are you really unable to use these techniques to eliminate books you wouldn't like? A scarlet letter is not going to be placed in self-published books, no matter how much you might wish it. It's just not going to happen.

But it isn't the problem of finding good books that moonshot is interested in. It is "problem" of those who upload unsolicited and unedited work calling themselves "authors" that seems to bother moonshot.

[typatterson67]

Originally Posted by moonshot

Then it would be a good idea to somehow separate the 'author' who has spent some extra time, effort and money to get their book professionally edited etc. as typatterson67 did from the 'author' who has typed a few hundred pages and clicked it up to Amazon and stuck a price tag on it.

IMO whoever writes for public consumption, irrespective of quality of product, commercial model, and distribution model, is an author.

someone who writes purely as a hobby and whose writing never sees the light of the day, is also perfectly entitled to call himself or herself an author.

In the creative arts field, I don't see any external party having the right to determine what label you apply to yourself.


And with that I am bowing out of this debate. I think all that had to be said has been said

[mcrow]

I think there is a difference in grade in authors.

There are world famous authors.
There are regionally famous authors.
Authors who do well enough to make a living.
Authors who supplement their day job, with dreams of bigger things.
Authors who self-publish simply to say they make money writing (more of an ego thing)
Authors who write just for their own enjoyment.

All are authors but they are not the same thing.

Now Stephen King and Braine Keene are not the same sort of author. King makes a fortune is world famous, Keene makes a living but isn't rich and is sort of a cult following type of guy. Both are equally respectible authors, IMO.

Then you have self-published authors like Scott Nicholson and Blake Crouch who do very well selling their books and they are of good quality. Are they any less authors than Stepehen King? I don't think so, in fact, I've enjoyed some of their books more than some of King's books.

Of course, there are those people out there that just want to say "yeah, I wrote a book. Just go on amazon and search my name". They want more than anything to be accepted as an author. Then there are those that write just for fun, maybe for friends, maybe to add color to a roleplay game campaign. They are authors as well but not the same thing as Keene, King, Crouch or Nicholson.

1-There are authors (that's pretty much anyone who writes anything)

2-Semi-pro Authors (ones that write but have not achieved a level of success that gets published or doesn't make enough to live on)

3-Professional Authors (Ones that may make a living but are not rich from it, may still work another job as well)

4-World Famous Authors (We're talking about the ones that not only make a living but make a very good living and may even be rich on top of it)

I think most of the authors that hang out here are probably in the #1 or #2 group, maybe we have a couple that might fit into #3.

I really hate it whem people say self-published people are not real authors. Granted maybe the majority of self-published stuff isn't very good but there are also a lot who are very good as well. Still, there is a difference between me and Stephen King so you could say compared to King I am not a true author assuming he is the standard. However, I like to think that I'm a better writer than the average joe on the street so maybe compared to Joe I look like Stephen King?

It's all relative, I guess.

I don't call myself an author simply because as soon as you say that people ask how many books you have published or sold. If you don't have a good answer, you will be dismissed. So, I simply say I'm an author in the the works.