You Don't Need a Published Book to Call Yourself a Writer

23 Jan 2025 #writing

Is it a best-selling book? A Pulitzer-winning novel? A large newsletter? More than 1,000 articles published anywhere online?

When can we call ourselves “writers”?

I have to confess I’ve been reluctant to use “digital writer” or “technical writer” or “writer” as a title anywhere online, even though I’ve been writing in my small corner of the Internet since 2018.

But recently, watching this interview with Devon Eriksen on YouTube, I changed my mind about using the title “writer.” He says:

If you’ve written and you’ve gotten paid for it. You’re a writer.

After hearing that, I wasn’t afraid to change my tagline on social media and here on my blog.

Definitely, someone has asked me to write something and paid me for that. That was by pure accident or luck, thanks to sharing the tutorials I write here on my blog. That’s how I made my first internet money.

You don’t need to publish a book. Well, publishing a book isn’t that hard these days. James Altucher has a strategy to publish a book in 30 days.

You don’t need to write and publish a book to call yourself a writer. Find one person that will pay to write and start calling yourself a “writer.” I’m a writer. And you?