http://www.authormedia.com/2009/09/17/7-differences-between-published-unpublished-authors/

Hmm. Some points yes, fine, but:

Published authors see marketing as part of their mission to help & inspire others.

Huh?

And also:

Published authors have a platform that they start building years before their first book comes out.

That's all fine and good, but surely you'd concentrate on the book first, then all the other stuff?

Hmmm. I don't know if I agree with his sentiments. Not that I'm published, but:

Difference #1 – Consistency Published authors wake up early and write every day. Unpublished writers write sporadically, often at night.

Then, in the comments, he said:

I do know authors who write from 11pm-1am every day. There is nothing magic about mornings other than that it is easier to be truly constant in the mornings. Generally, Everyone is free from 5:30am till 7:30am.

What a ****! In his world maybe, but in the world of work, many of us get up at 6am-ish and have left the house by 7am to get to work.

According to him, I have no chance. I write at the weekends. I don't have a blog - and even then he is contradictory:

Difference #3 – Platform Published authors have a platform that they start building years before their first book comes out. Unpublished authors have little or no platform. Some don’t even know what a platform is. Difference #6 – Website Published authors have a website usually www.TheirName.com. Unpublished authors have a free Blogger blog that they rarely update.

Of course most published authors have a website with their name. They are published and know part of their job is to market themselves. Surely the job of the unpublished is to work hard on their writing and worry about the marketing once they've got the book published (or about to publish, whether by traditional or self-publishing routes)?

He doesn't appear to be a published author, so how the f*ck can he possibly know what that means!? Unfortunately, there are far too many people out there offering advice from the standpoint of little to no experience.

Most of what he says can be reversed, and that's because he clearly hasn't been through any development hoops. For example, he says published authors write for other people; unpublished write for themselves. That may be true to begin with, but the really successful authors are those who write for themselves, on the basis that if they're excited by something, their readers will be too.

The other day, I came across someone who's offering a whole series of writing workshops and services, including how to sell your work to publishers. But I couldn't see that she'd had anything published. Turns out she hasn't: has an agent but nothing sold yet. Okay, she may actually be a good writer but not only is it impossible for her to really know what works and what doesn't, the fact she's convinced herself she's an expert already can only prevent her own development.

Stay away!

Oh dear, that is absolute bunk, isn't it: badly argued, and flatly contradicted by tons of evidence.

This is crap. The only difference between a published and an unpublished 'author' is that the former has had a book published.

A nice antidote to this blather, perhaps:

http://lyndaerucker.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/on-the-writing-life/

Bit wordy but great sentiment about writing.

There's a lot of self-satisfied guff spouted by some published writers. And, as someone in the comments section below that blog said, all published writers were unpublished writers before they got their break and their attitude to their writing didn't miraculously change overnight.

Personally, I'm unpublished. I write stories that I believe are publishable, I've been told they're publishable, but my main aim is not just to be published, but to be published well. To this end, I work away at my stories, each one is better than the last (I think - I hope!) and in the end - quite soon now, I think - I will write a story that will be acceptable to a magazine or anthology that I would be proud to appear in and the story will be one that I'll be proud to put my name to. Until that time, I'll keep practising.

Well, the site the is authormedia.com, whichdoes say something about 'growing your platform online', so no surprise they're pushing the importance of such things.

But have you seen the 'meet our team' page? They apparently have a 'director of customer happiness'. Yuk.

They apparently have a 'director of customer happiness'.

Ick! indeed.

And yes, guff spouted as facts about what published authors do, by an unpublished author, on a commercial site dedicated to getting unpublished authors to "build their platform" isn't worth ... the webspace it's written on.

There is only one diofference between published and unpublished writers...the former have been published!

After that we are all individual, and I'm pretty certain you can't pick out consistent ways of working etc...

HB x

I do know authors who write from 11pm-1am every day. There is nothing magic about mornings other than that it is easier to be truly constant in the mornings. Generally, Everyone is free from 5:30am till 7:30am.

I might send him my baby for a bit.

Ha

Utter tosh! I am not a robot! I am a human Bean!