Do you really want to be a writer — or an author?

Being a “writer” is different than being an “author.”

By definition, an author is a writer but a writer isn’t always an author.

The difference, to me, is whether your work is published or not.

You don’t have to be an amazing — or even good writer to be a successful author. In fact, most bestselling authors? Especially those in nonfiction?

Are not literary geniuses. In fact, as this article shows, many popular authors write at a high school level.

Tim Ferriss? 8th grade.

Malcolm Gladwell? Barely at the level of freshman comp — in high school.

That’s because the best writing, from a publishing perspective, is simple.

Concise. Understandable.

And, for my particular niche of prescriptive nonfiction (which includes how-to and self-help) the content of a book has to be useful to readers, widely applicable (aka commercial), and relatively easy to implement.

I recently worked on a revision of The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy while also reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. What struck me about these two bestselling books was their simplicity.