Writing Types.

During my fiction-writing phase I came across the occasional forum where somebody would ask the question:

Excuse me all you people who are so much more experienced than I am and to whom I therefore earnestly bow the knee (with just a hint of irritating obsequiousness which I hope you won’t mind) but can anybody tell me what the difference is between a writer and an author?

(Clots! I hate forums.) My answer:

Authors write to please the reader. Writers write to please themselves.

Or, to put it another way:

Good writers get respected. Good authors get rich.

And now I’m struggling to decide whether to have a second piece of buttered toast (I’m back on my favourite bread, thank heaven.) I don’t seem to be putting any weight on so I think I will. Blow the expense.