Forum: Author Hangout

Author vs. Writer

helmut_meukel 🚫

I just looked-up two stories in Wikipedia.

The Midwich Cuckoos is a 1957 science fiction novel written by the English author John Wyndham.

The City and the Stars is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1956.

Both are novels but why is Wyndham an author and Clarke (only?) a writer?
Am I wrong in feeling there is a difference? What's necessary for a writer to be recognized as an author?

BTW, if I had to name 3 SF writers as the Grand Masters, it would be Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke.
Wyndham would be in the last third of the long list, never make it into the first twenty.

HM.

HM.

Replies: Dominions Son REP awnlee jawking Quasirandom Switch Blayde richardshagrin mauidreamer

Dominions Son 🚫

@helmut_meukel

On first thought, I would generally consider writer and author as interchangeable. However Your comment made me curious about whether or not there is a difference.

There is a difference.

The best explanation I found is here: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writer-vs-author-whats-the-difference#what-is-an-author

What Is the Difference Between a Writer and an Author?

It might seem that the difference between a writer and author has something to do with the amount of time you spend writing, whether you're a nonfiction or fiction writer, or whether you give yourself a pen name. This is not the case. The primary difference between a writer and an author has to do with whether or not your work is published.

If you've written dozens of science fiction novels, children's books, and various literary pieces—but none of them have ever been published—you are technically a writer. However, if your next book is distributed by the publishing industry, that act of publishing makes you an author. In the era of self-publishing, it's easier than ever to be considered an author without ever having to interact with traditional publishing companies.

So ultimately, an author is a writer, but a writer isn't necessarily an author.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

So ultimately, an author is a writer, but a writer isn't necessarily an author.

Hence the (unnecessary) term, 'published author'.

@Switch Blayde

"Author" and "writer" really are interchangeable.

Not really. You can call an author a writer, but you can't call a writer an author unless they're published (again, under their own name, rather than under someone else auspices).

REP 🚫
Updated:

@helmut_meukel

Writer and Author are used interchangeably. The main difference seems to be a writer's works are not copyrighted in their name. An author also creates the idea behind what they write, while this in not true for all writers (e.g. a newspaper reporter is told what to write by their editor).

Author vs Writer

The difference between author and writer is that an author is a person who creates his own ideas and draws his own plot and writes about it, the work of an author is always copyrighted, a person becomes an author only when his work gets published, on the other hand, a writer is a person who writes articles, books, magazines, news articles, etc but his work does not have a copyright in his name, the work of a writer is not necessarily published.

https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-author-and-writer/#:~:text=%20Main%20Differences%20Between%20Author%20and%20Writer%20,on%20the%20other%20hand%2C%20a%20writer...%20More%20

There are some people who define published, as used above, as a writer whose works are for sale (i.e. if your work in not for sale, then your work is not published). However, there is a wider meaning of the word as indicated below; specifically, specifically, being distributed to the public for reading.

published

[ˈpəbliSHt]

ADJECTIVE

(of a book, journal, piece of music, etc.) prepared and issued for public sale or readership.

"the collection includes the complete published works of Benjamin Britten" · [more]

(of information) printed or made available online so as to be generally known.

"there is very little published data on the subject"

https://www.bing.com/search?q=published+definition&qs=LS&pq=published&sc=8-9&cvid=F282029D4E654231B1657901D6737E5F&FORM=QBRE&sp=1&ghc=1

awnlee jawking 🚫

@helmut_meukel

You could spend a lifetime spotting and correcting inconsistencies in Wikipedia articles.

I strongly suspect the authors of the Wyndham and Clarke either didn't know or didn't care about any possible differences between 'writer' and 'author'.

I like John Wyndham's stories. We had to study them at school and I actually enjoyed it.

AJ

Quasirandom 🚫

@helmut_meukel

I use author and writer more or less interchangeably. The one shading I have is that screenplays of any type have a (screen-)writer but not an author. Well, uncredited texts are more likely to have a writer than an author.

Some people might make more of a class distinction, though.

(I like some of Wyndham's works, but much of it hasn't aged very well. Clarke's has fared better, especially his later works.)

Switch Blayde 🚫

@helmut_meukel

The author of that book was a British writer named Joe Shmo.

My boss authored the policy on sexual harassment (could have said "penned").

"Author" and "writer" really are interchangeable.

richardshagrin 🚫

@helmut_meukel

King Author ruled Camelot and is basically mythical.

Replies: joyR

joyR 🚫

@richardshagrin

King Author ruled Camelot and is basically mythical.

Actually he was mystical, but he had a lisp…

mauidreamer 🚫

@helmut_meukel

In truth, there is little comparison between the two.

All his life, Wyndham was primarily a writer, with more than a dozen published novels and 70 short stories to his credit. His fame as a noted author lies mainly on four of his novels. His educational record was not stellar. His wartime service in the British Army was respectable and noteworthy especially during his time with XXX Corp. Financially, for many years he was supported by his family. His success came after getting inspired by his younger brother's success as a published author to change his style of writing and penned Triffids for publication in 1951.

Clarke, on the other hand, was a scientist as well as a successful and noted author. Interested in space since childhood, stargazing, fossil hunting and American SF pulp magazines lead into joining a Jr Astro Assoc and a series of Space travel and spacecraft articles while still a teen. Although his education was interrupted by WWII (enlisted in the RAF as a radar specialist, rising to FltLt) he eventually received a "first-class" degree in math and physics from Kings College. His contributions to science were too many for me to attempt to list, just know that geostationary orbit is officially known as the Clarke orbit.

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Forum: Author Hangout

Author vs. Writer

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