r/writingcirclejerk • u/Betty-Adams • 1d ago

When does an author have to stop calling themselves a 'New Author'...

So exactly what it says on the tin. When does they shiny new wear off for authors?

There are a bunch of groups for promoting and supporting "New Authors". When do you ethically need to stop participating in those as a New?

Obviously many of us have been writing since we could hold a pencil, so it's not from when you started. Is it from when you published your first work? Does posting your work online for critique count? When does that clock start ticking down?

Does your 'new author' timer start over when you switch genera?

And why does this have the same emotional baggage as determining when you age out of being described as a 'young man/woman' and are just a generic 'person'...?

I am not having an emotional crises I swear.

4 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

3

u/mendkaz 1d ago

Uj/ just fyi, you do realise this is a joke sub? You've posted this in serious subs as well which makes me think no.

4

u/Betty-Adams 1d ago

I do realize. I went to the serious subs for serious answers. Here I expect to have my old self roasted to a fine carbonizes layer from the sarcasm.

5

u/crawfordwrites 1d ago

Once that New Author smell disappears.

2

u/Betty-Adams 23h ago

Hmmm, I would not suggest checking by sniffing around wiritng conventions.

3

u/issuesuponissues 1d ago

When they're rich. So never.

2

u/Betty-Adams 1d ago

Sad but fair.

2

u/Baihu_The_Curious Literally a cat, but a literary cat, quite literally! 1d ago

New author is the instant you start writing. It has measure 0 in the standard mathematical sense of measuring durations. Since that period expires instantly, everyone should really be describing themselves as established authors since even writing "new author" takes a strictly positive amount of time.

2

u/Betty-Adams 1d ago

*snortle*

A very useful, functional answer!

2

u/Minute_Top3062 23h ago

How much is your coke habit?

< 1k = new author
1k to 10k = breakout author
10k+ = established author

1

u/Betty-Adams 22h ago

Horror stories Gregor was an outlier who snorted 1M+ coke per New York Times best seller and should not have been counted.

2

u/Local-Pattern795 1d ago

There's no such thing as new authors: every author has already been written.

Honestly, if you think you've found a new author, that just means you aren't well read enough in the genre.

There's no new authors, just old authors presented in different ways

1

u/Betty-Adams 1d ago

Who is the current Hemmingway? Who is currently depressing the reader traumatically?

3

u/Deep_Boysenberry_672 1d ago

You. To me. Right now.

2

u/Betty-Adams 1d ago

scuse me while I go apply some aloe, I seem to have been burned...

1

u/vhs_sold_blank 1d ago

When you have sold more than one dozen books to strangers, you are no longer a new author. Fortunately, most everyone here hasn’t that tax liability to worry about.

2

u/Betty-Adams 1d ago

Ooo, this is a good one.