When is a Writer Not a Writer?

In 2004 Erica Jong wrote in the New York Times that only 14 percent of writers polled by Poets & Writers magazine earned their annual income from writing, while some 54 percent earned nothing at all. I'm sure those numbers have changed even more as of today in 2008.

During the Writer's Guild strike last year, pundits observed that members of the Guild - the relatively better-paid writers of screen and teleplays - were spoiled with an average income of $60,000 a year. Such cynics neglected to note that the average income of Guild members is just $4,000 - meaning the average is set by the few multi-millionaire screenwriters and not shared by the rest of the pack.

It's a fact that most writers today don't earn their living strictly by writing. Many well-known writers have day jobs as teachers or professors in colleges for example. Still the piece of advice many books on writing or becoming a writer offer is, when people ask what you do, tell them you are a writer. This is to implant the idea in your head that you are already a writer, not just someone who wants to be a writer.

That's all well and full of good intentions but what happens in the real world when you tell someone you're a writer? They will immediately ask what you have written, and if your reply is that you're working on your first novel, you'll likely encounter that smile from them that says...Oh, you mean you want to be a writer.

And heaven-for-bid you say...I'm a poet and have a published book of poetry out called "Chasing Emily", or whatever your book is titled. You can see in their faces that they are perhaps thinking...Oh, I thought you meant you were a real writer, not just a poet. As if poets aren't really writers. I must admit to bowing to that sentiment a little myself by naming my blog "Poet/Author Jim Jordan" even though I certainly consider poets are indeed authors.

So I leave you with these thoughts. When is a writer not a writer? What defines one as a writer? If a person earns most of their income by whatever day or night job they have, and yet they write short stories, novels, magazine articles, newspaper articles, or poetry...are they not therefore...writers?

See you in the bookstores.

~J