When do you consider yourself an author?

With the upcoming debut of my fist novel, The Soul Detective, I’ve been wondering at what point do writers consider themselves authors?

For me it is as soon as you’ve typed in “The End” to conclude that book or short story. It doesn’t need to be published, it doesn’t need to be read by anyone, it doesn’t need to be edited.

When you feel that book has reached its conclusion and you can honestly tell yourself, “I’m finished,” then you’ve become an author. Congratulations!

Of course, getting it published traditionally is an entirely different topic. For me — like so many thousands of other authors — I’m going the e-publishing route. I don’t think a story such as mine is one agents feel is marketable. Never something any author wants to hear. But unless you find an author willing to risk their neck on something out of the ordinary, it’s going to be tough to break into that traditional-published market.

It’s one of the great things about being an author in this day and age. After you’ve endured enough of all those “thanks, no thanks,” letters, sending you back to the drawing board to rewrite your query and synopsis for the umpteenth time, you actually have a legitimate option.

And it’s not like you’ll be going it alone. There is so much information and opinion throughout the Internet on what to do and what not to do regarding e-publishing.

A couple of great blogs that have helped me:

David Gaughran’s blog, especially the entry under Basics 

Another with links to multiple reference sites is Jane Friedman’s e-publishing blog

J.A. Konrath’s blog is inspiring and empowering for the neophyte e-publisher

As most of them will let you know, pick and chose from all the info you run across and find out what works best for you.

Regardless, whether you want to go the traditional route, prefer e-publishing, or just love to write for no one but yourself, type in those little words, “The End” and understand you determine when you’re an author, nobody else does.