I'm still working on my own credibility as a writer.

 I'm still working on my own credibility as a writer.

I think my original assumption was that you weren't really an "author" unless you could make a living at writing. Of course, there are a lot of exceptions to this idea. Lots of legit writers have to supplement their income. Lots of writers make their living in the field of writing--publishing, editing, etc, but might have a hard time surviving solely on royalties.

But it still seems like a clincher to me. A writer makes his living as a writer.

Then again, I came back to writing with the intention of writing books and not worrying about the commercial-ality of them. The only real way to make money from books are:

1.) Write a book the traditional way, with an agent and one of the Big Four publishers, have it sell well, build on the franchise.

2.) Write a book independently, be a wizard at self-promotion, and spend most of your time hawking your books.

In both cases, the chances are slim to none. 

Neither of these avenues appealed to me, so if my goal was the "make a living" as a writer I was depending on sheer luck. 

Of course, I'll never know what might have happened if I'd stuck with writing in my early 30s instead of buying my store. My very unsatisfying guess about my chances is: Maybe, maybe not.

Really it's a moot point because I was such a mess at the time that talent was way down the list of things I needed to succeed. I had horrible habits that probably needed a hiatus of 25 years in order to get out of my system. 

I came back to writing fresh and without pressure and with more life experience and maturity--but also a little too old to be trying to make a "career" out of it now. 

Looking back at the beginning, I think I thought all a writer had to do was write the book and everything else was taken care of. Then, of course, the actual hierarchy of writing set in: the next step was to get an agent; then to get published; then to have that book get good reviews; then to sell a lot of copies. 

And then repeat. 

Hey, no pressure. 

So I'm happy with the books I've written. As I keep saying, outside any objective standards or any outside opinions of them, they are much, much better than I, myself, thought I could do. 

Whatever that means.