Author is a term used to identify someone who has published their written work, whether that is a book, a blog post, a paper, or something else. Regardless of their professional status, authors tend to be dedicated writers who take their writing seriously.
Authorship is a process in which a person is given the credit for their contribution to a published work, and also assumes responsibility and accountability for the work that they have produced. This credit and implication can have a range of academic, social, and financial consequences.
When people use the terms author and writer they often do so without considering the differences between them. Using them interchangeably can be misleading and can lead to misunderstandings and mistakes in research, teaching, and other fields.
According to Merriam-Webster, a writer is a person who writes something for the public or for their own enjoyment. A writer may be a freelance journalist or a freelance poet or novelist who has written for a living. They usually have a strong background in their field, and they write primarily for the public.
However, there are some people who do not qualify to be a writer or to be an author. The person who does not meet all the requirements to be an author may still be a writer, but they do not have the legal rights and privileges that come with being an author.
A writer is a person who has written a piece of literature, an article or a short story and they have the copyright for their work. This makes them responsible for their own written work.
In addition, a writer is a person who has written based on their own ideas. They can also be a freelance writer or a literary agent who can sell the works of others.
An author is a person who has written a book and has the copyright for it. They also have the right to re-sell their book and make changes to it.
The term author has been criticized for its transitive use as an unnecessary or pretentious synonym of write, though note that it typically refers to the writing of material that has been published–and not to unpublished texts such as love letters or diaries.
Some researchers are concerned that the term author has been overused to mean someone who is a professional or distinguished writer. This concern has been exacerbated by the rise of self-publishing, which is now more common than ever before.
Another reason that authorship has been criticized is that it is seen as a way to distinguish someone from the rest of the population, especially when they are a famous or well-known person. This is the view held by many people, and it has been reflected in various survey results.
The Usage Panel has tended to sympathize with this point of view, but the sympathy is slowly eroding over time. For example, in our 1988 survey, 74 percent of the Panel rejected the sentence He has authored a dozen books on the subject. But in our 2001 survey, this percentage had fallen to 60 percent. It is not clear why this difference has occurred, but it is likely due to the growing number of writers who are considered reputable and popular, which leads to the increasing popularity of the verb author in reference to those who are known for their work.