Are you a writer or are you an author?

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When I decided to wade into the thicket of Indie publishing, I knew it would be prudent to educate myself to some degree first. One of the primary distinctions I wanted to establish was whether I was an "author" or a "writer". Maybe these words are interchangeable to others, but to me it made a difference.
If one is to compare the definition of each word, as determined by , the two words seem so close as to possibly be the same. Since the English language rarely works this way, and similar or not, every word has its very own specific meaning, I took a closer look.
While both definitions offered much in the way of similarity, my efforts revealed the subtleties which I knew were there. As it turns out, both a writer and an author may be someone who pens articles, books or other texts. They both may be someone "who has written something specified," as in a particular column, genre or a regular article which is topical in scope. These similarities were what I expected; splitting hairs revealed the fine differences.
The distinction, to me, was in the first definition of each word. A writer is one who pens as an occupation, while an author does it as a profession. Again, the variation may be too slight for some to discern, or even care about. In my mind, however, an occupation is a job, while a profession is a career. An occupation indicates needing only a minimal degree of skill to achieve as compared to a profession. As someone who has an occupation, I am an expendable worker, while as a professional, I express a significant degree of expertise in my field. The difference means that either I write in a casual or even indifferent sense, or I am serious and devoted to my craft. I choose the latter.
To some, this rigorous dissection of the semantics may seem like overkill. After all, one's writer/author is another's tomato/tomahto. For those with a discerning palate for details, however, the distinctions are significant. As we build the label of ourselves which we wish to express to others, the particulars make all of the difference. If we don't take the time to distinguish the finer points, we are taking a chance that others will pigeonhole us with their own version of who we are. I don't know about you, but I prefer to manage my own labels. I prefer to be known as an author. 

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