Are you a writer or an author?

I recently read a post on Dean Wesley Smith's blog. It was about the difference between being a writer and being an author. To put it simply he states; a writer is one who is writing, but an author is one who finished the book and is trying to sell it.

I kind of hate writing, but I love being an author. In other words I hate writing, but I love having wrote.

As my number of finished books pile up, I feel a sense of pride. I like those monthly royalty checks from amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. The author in me feels quite proud.

But author's tend to rest on their laurels. I see other authors trying to sell their books and getting stuck on that book. The book sells or it doesn't sell, but they just keep on pushing that ONE book. In other words they stop writing.

This seems to be a bigger problem for independent writers and authors. I guess people with publishing contracts are forced to keep on writing. But us self published types often loose motivation after one or two books if they don't sell a million copies or downloads.

But when I look at the independent success storeis like Amanda Hockins or John Locke one thing remains clear. They wrote. They had more than two books written before they made it big.

I was going to write some more on this subject but I'm reminded that I have another book I really need to be working on right now...

Keep writing.