Intro

Have you ever finished a book before, picked it up and wondered, what genius wrote this work of art? Well, if you do you’ll find an author wrote it. An author is a person who typically works from home, writing books. They have good knowledge of literature, writing techniques, and usually write interesting and captivating stories. Authors are lucky because they get to work from home, write about what they please, and don’t have to do anything except write. Some challenges for them are, staying away from distractions, focusing, being creative, being original, and not giving in to temptation. When I grow up I want to be an author, and in this report, I aim to answer the question, what deliberate acts should I do between now and the time that I start my chosen career of an Author to set me apart from other applicants?

Qualifications & More

People may say that being an author is easy, you just have to type up something and then get someone to print it, and even though author’s basically have to do that, it’s really a lot more difficult. True, anyone can be an author, but publishing companies won’t just let anyone be an author so, NCEA level 3 excellence endorsed is a good start. Entry level authors are paid $62,134 on average, while the average salary is $74,838. More experienced authors are paid $99,873 per year! Other benefits include, workplace flexibility, and fame.

Qualities required

Being an author would be an amazing job but, very specific qualities are needed to do well in this job. These are, patience, passion, and dedication. Patience is important for this job because one million copies aren’t going to be bought on the first day. A good author needs to understand this and be patient. Passion is believing and loving what you do. Authors need a strong sense of passion because the job of an author is long and drawn out, you will not cope if you don’t care at all about what you’re doing. Dedication is super important for authors because working from home will bring challenges and distractions. For example, I could currently be gaming online right now. Others are, but I am dedicated to my work so no, I won’t go off task. Authors need all of these qualities in order to succeed in their career.

Competencies required

Competence is the reason that everything in our world is a good as it is. All jobs require compentency and the job of an author requires lots of creativity, great written communication, and the social media presence are all important factors in the success of an author. Creativity is probably the most important quality of an author. Authors need fresh ideas to keep the audience from putting the book down. Because you read a new book for something different. Something creative and fresh. Written communication is the most important competency. Because people want to understand what they’re reading, and if they don’t, they won’t read. Social media presence is another important competency because it’s what gives you all of your publicity, with it, people know who you are and expect great things from your book. 

Numerical data

Above, you can see the average salary of an NZ author compared to the salaries of six other candidates. Any of these could be the main job I ever have. I can’t imagine doing some of these jobs, but, with my skillset, I could easily do them to their best extent. Some examples may seem unrealistic and inapplicable to my skill set and personality. But in fact, the lowest-paying jobs in this list are actually the jobs I find most appealing. Tour guides and early childhood are the ones I would choose as my second and third in any order. Curiously, the lowest paying jobs are the ones that require more qualities and competencies whilst the job of an architect requires more qualifications. But I want to be an author regardless of salary or perks, I just want to take people on a journey in my stories and lead them to god. And that is more important than any perk or extra dollar.

Deliberate acts I need to do in Yr 10

This year may be a couple away from the time that I publish my first book but regardless, it’s time to take action. There are no specific qualifications required in order to be accepted by a publishing company but my expert says and I quote, “practise writing every week. Read as much as you can”. These are two fundamental things I need to be a great author. So, this year I aim to start my first book. In addition I am going to go deeper into what I am passionate about, and dedicate myself to schoolwork in order to get my best grades and develop the quality of dedication. I will read goodread reviews to see what people want in a book, and enter the short story competition. I am going to read as much as possible especially books on writing skills and character design. I will write whenever I can to develop greater written communication. I will also draw the characters in my books with creative ideas. 

Deliberate acts I need to do in senior school

Senior school is the pinnacle of everyone’s school career and by that time I will be knocking on the door of my career as an author. I intend to have written my first book or two, and by this time my main focus will be attracting the attention of a publisher. I think head boy is something that clearly shows the publishers that I mean business. To reach this goal I will enter speech competitions, story competitions, production, and finally have NCEA level 1 2 and 3 excellence endorsed. I will be respectful be confident in my approach in order to attract their attention so I will enter speech competitions to practise this. I aim to have awesome literacy skills so they can’t say no. To gain this skill, I will need to be constantly reading and writing. If I do all this, I will certainly get my first couple books published.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an author is an amazing and difficult job. I aim to become one, one day. Becoming an author is like owning a house, it’s really expensive and hard at first. You have to cut down on the treats you would usually get, like free time, and work hard. But, once you get there, it’s quite smooth sailing. I have concluded that the deliberate acts should I do between now and the time that I start my chosen career of an Author to set me apart from other applicants are, reading and writing as much as possible. So in order to reach my chosen career, I will read every night, read a book every week and start writing my first book.

Expert info:

My expert was Karen Cossy, she is an author my parents know and I asked her these questions.

1. What are employers looking for when they hire people for this career?

2. What are the qualities that I need to be successful?

3. What are the competencies that I need to be successful?

4. How do I develop these? (e.g. extra-curricular, part-time job, service...)

5. How should can i prepare for this career between now and year 13, both in and out of school?

6. What are some deliberate acts I can do between now and when I start my career that you think could set me apart from other applicants?

7. Any extra info?

Karen answered:

1. For content writing you have to have good spelling, grammar, and good editing skills.

2. Persistence is needed because it takes a while to get, good imagination, be able to write engaging stories that people don’t want to put down.

3. You need to be able to type well, use computers, be able to research online or in libraries, to be able to talk to people and ask questions to find out more, most authors need to be able to promote themselves through social media, websites, and have public signings.

4. You need to read a lot, you need to write a lot, just keep writing, spend time each week writing and reading, practise makes perfect. I should keep a record of what I need, review books I read on goodreads and social media, go through goodreads to find out what people like in a book. 

5. You can follow authors on instagram, see what they post, have a goodreads account, follow people who do book reviews see what they like in a book, read books on the art of writing, how to write good characters, and how to write good plots,

6. With fictional writing, what sets you apart when looking for a publisher is all you, being able to write a good book is great, “the fundamental thing you need to have is, having something to sell,” having social media accounts are very important in setting up for your career.

7. You have to be good at research, content writers make content for websites, technical writers make manuals, it’s not just writing books, there are many different jobs for people with writing skills.

Bibliography

Works Cited

Good Kids Books for 5-12 yrs—unputdownable stories for kids, https://www.karencossey.com/. Accessed 23 March 2023.

guide, step. “Author - Writing and Publishing.” Careers NZ, 19 December 2022, https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/arts-and-media/writing-and-publishing/author/. Accessed 23 March 2023.

“J. K. Rowling: A Year In The Life.” Documentary Heaven, https://documentaryheaven.com/jk-rowling-year-life/. Accessed 23 March 2023.

Nadkarni, Sakshi. “Famous Authors Who Didn't Have Degree in Literature | Didn't Major In Writing.” Gobookmart, 15 May 2021, https://gobookmart.com/famous-authors-who-didnt-have-degree-in-literature-or-didnt-major-in-writing/. Accessed 23 March 2023.

“Salary guide.” Trade Me, https://www.trademe.co.nz/c/jobs/product/salary-guide. Accessed 23 March 2023.

“Writer Salary in New Zealand - Average Salary.” Talent.com, https://nz.talent.com/salary?job=writer. Accessed 23 March 2023.