No. Two reasons for that.

Yes, I have been published and have upcoming releases in both print and online venues, paying and non-paying. I still have no idea what most of the markets for short fiction want and I can’t afford to buy samples of each journal to get a feel for what they like. So, I flounder and do guess work. To compensate for not being able to read each journal, I read all guidelines carefully, construct my cover letter or query with care, follow submission procedure for each market I submit to and just hope what I write is what they like. I’m still building my platform and networking with others. I didn’t finish high school and never went to college. Yet, I’ve still managed to publish some of my work. And I am still not a professional writer.

I’m still learning about the publishing industry. I don’t know enough about it to call myself a professional. I try to be professional about my queries and submissions, but that doesn’t mean I am a professional. Until I can send out my work with confidence and know I have the right market for my horror short and longer work, I won’t be a professional. (An author–not yet either. I won’t call myself that until I have a novel length work out and maybe not even then.)

Secondly, my output is still varied too greatly. The word count for a single week can vary from 1000 words to 15000 words. I know several writers who can output 2000 words in a single day. I’ve done it myself, but there is never a steady number of words coming out. Sometimes it is a labor of love, sometimes it’s a stump-fest. There are times I struggle with every sentence, second guessing myself.

So no, I’m not a professional. Any writer who can submit with confidence and be consistent with their work is what constitutes a professional to me. Maybe I’m just weird, though.

Thanks for the links to the old posts. I’ll check them out.

I always associated being paid with being a professional writer, but have changed my mind since I now spend far more time writing than doing my day job! So I am a writer, with a part time job to pay my bills! It would be a dream come true to be paid to write and in a position to give up my job (to spend even more time writing!) but at the moment I’m happy knowing there are readers out there enjoying my work – that’s the biggest thrill for me.

In terms of giving your work away for free, I did a very in-depth blog post at the old blog. Actually, it was so in-depth that I had to break it up into two parts:

http://robertswartwood.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/bottom-of-the-barrel-part-1/

http://robertswartwood.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/bottom-of-the-barrel-part-2/

Basically, I don’t see anything wrong with giving your work away for free as long as you KNOW you’re in fact giving your work away for free. Many writers (mostly novice) fool themselves into thinking that it’s just the same as getting paid. Well, it’s not of course. Main thing — if you’re giving your work away for free, it should be for a very good reason. Like with my novella The Silver Ring, I posted it online to get it out there and hopefully gain a new readership. Would I do that with a novel? Very unlikely. But a novella is a strange beast, because there are very limited markets and … well, like I said, I go much more in-depth in those old blog posts.

Thanks for stopping by

When I think of the term ‘professional writer’ my first thoughts go to the word ‘profession’, which implies something you do for a living. Following that line I worked as a professional writer for many years doing technical and marketing writing. It was my full time job and I was paid well for it. The word ‘professional’ broadens the meaning to imply that you treat your work seriously AND are good at it. But what does ‘seriously’ mean? Is there an hour figure you can attach where it crosses over from being a hobby to a profession? And what does good mean? You can be a good writer without the world rewarding you for it. You can even die and have your writing become well known later.

I could go on but you get my drift. Here’s the bottom line for me: I would never tell someone that I was a professional writer. It smacks of trying too hard. I’m a writer who is striving to improve, who writes and submits in the margins of busy family life and part time hourly work, who is always trying to increase those margins, who has made as little as zero for a story and as much as $1,000 for a story.

Hey, there’s a hot button: if you haven’t done it before (sorry, I’m pretty new to your blog), how about a discussion on whether you should ever write for free? People really get boiling over that one…

I write, but I’m not a professional writer (i.e., I’m not making a significant income from writing). I do many other things…paint, read, drive, watch old movies, blog…and don’t claim to be a professional at any of them.

But part of that label, “professional”, relates to how I carry myself. When I submit, communicate with editors, agents, etc., I try to be as professional as possible.

Even though by salary I’m not a pro, I can still act the part. Professionalism can be a way of life regardless of one’s pay rate. I know plenty of “professionals” in other fields (especially some of my fellow teachers) who make a habit of demonstrating unprofessional behavior.

It’s not all that less complicated than trying to tease out who is professional and who isn’t based on if they can make a living off of it, but I also think that in the arts, a certain degree of professionalism comes when you have spent enough time on the craft to be able to share it with newer artists.