A real writer?

There comes a point in every artist’s career where he must decide what his talent is worth. When I started publishing on KDP I was just starting out in the ebook revolution and like many writers, thought nothing would come of it. People would scoff and say that I’m not a ‘real’ writer because I never published traditionally. Well let me tell them something, I had an agent and wasted four years trying to make it as a ‘real’ writer. Four years waiting for some suit to decide my future, hoping for an advance large enough to justify the amount of hours I’ve spent sitting in front of a computer screen. All that time trying to break into traditional publishing just so I could tell everyone I was a real writer. That’s when I had an epiphany about people who label someone in the arts. What separates a real writer from someone who writes? Here are my criteria for calling oneself a true author. First, have you written a complete novel that can be sold to the general public? In my case, eight so far with another three on the way. Second, do people actually read the book whether they paid for it or got it free. Again, I can answer yes to that one because to date over 12,000 of my books have been downloaded. Third, is writing something that you do on a daily basis and feel disconnected and out-of-sorts if you don’t put something down on the page? I write a minimum of two hours a day nearly every day of the year (travel days excluded). And the final criteria by which I judge someone to be a real writer is the obvious, do you make money off your books even if it’s just a few bucks a year? That one for me answers itself. So, there you have it. If you can say yes to these questions than I would say that you’re for real and should be proud to be a writer and anyone who disagrees is an ***. As I’ve posted before, I believe traditional publishing is dead and we are in the midst of a new indie revolution that will conquer tradition. I’m proud to be a part of it.