The New World of Publishing:
Investing In Your Future
Dean Wesley Smith
Copyright © 2012 by Dean Wesley Smith
Published by WMG Publishing
Cover illustration by Philcold/Dreamstime
Cover design copyright © 2012 WMG Publishing
Smashwords Edition
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Introduction
The following first appeared in a slightly varied form in a number of articles on my web site, www.deanwesleysmith.com. They are still there to read for free if you would like.
Just recently I had a local here in our small town who knows I am a writer walk up to me and ask me how "my book" was coming along. I get that question a great deal and have no idea how to answer it.
None. Zero. Zip. The reason I can't answer the question is based on the problem in the question and the problem in what I know the questioner knows.
The problem with the question is obvious. It assumes I only have one book and am taking a vast amount of time writing it, making it perfect by working it over and over and over. That's the unspoken assumption in that question. Otherwise, the person would have asked something like, "Which book are you working on now?"
If that person knew I could finish a new novel every two or three weeks if I wanted, they would be shocked and more than likely not talk to me anymore.
I also know the local friend just doesn't understand the difference between me being a Writer and me being an Author. And honestly, most people don't understand the difference. They think that once a book is written, the Author is done for a long time. My friend thinks it takes a very long time to write any novel. My friend thinks that books are special things, to be put up on some high pedestal and worshipped.
These assumptions my friend makes about my writing are not worth my time to try to correct in a quick social interaction. So often I just play along with the assumption by saying, "Coming along great." That answer makes my friend happy and all is well and the topic is changed.
And since new writers come out of that same basic training as my local friend, new writers don't understand the difference either. And they think the same things about novels when they start writing them. It takes time and training and discovery and education to get past the myths our culture puts on writing novels. Most writers, sadly, never get past the myths and thus remain authors instead of writers.
What are the Differences Between an Author and a Writer?
--- A Writer is a person who writes.
--- An Author is a person who has written.
Sounds like the same almost, doesn't it? Nope. Those two are very, very far apart in reality and only cross in one main way: Writers are Authors as well, but Authors are seldom Writers.
For example: I am the Author of two original Men in Black novels. They took me about three weeks each to write. And I moved on and have written seventy or eighty novels since. And I am still writing all the time. But I am the AUTHOR of those two books.
If I had stopped writing new work after I finished those two novels, I would still be the Author of those two novels. But I would no longer be a Writer.
Let me put it this way: