What degree do you need to be an author?

You need a college degree (typically a bachelor's degree) in English, communications, or journalism to be an author. Writers and authors typically gain experience through on-the-job training; however, experience with high school and/or college newspapers, magazines, and non-profit organizations can be helpful.

How To Become An Author: What It Is and Career Path

What is an author and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

An author is an expert who is in charge of coming up with client stories printed out in mediums like books or videos. As an author, you will explore different information attached to the roles. This information may be imaginary or real.

Before openly making your work accessible, you must submit an outline to editors for evaluation and authorization. You may operate as an independent or free agent and merchandise your written material to book editors or publicizing agencies. You are required to analyze and make sure that written articles are flawless and without grammatical mistakes. In addition to being an author, you must have a good understanding of the story's fundamental and acute rectification abilities.

To be a fulfilled author, you must display outstanding writing and grammatical skill. You must be innovative, have time management ability, and have solid self-encouragement skills. Furthermore, you must obtain a bachelor's degree in English or psychology or a Master's Degree. You will earn an average of $77,190 per year or $37.11 every hour.

ScoreAuthorUS Average

Salary

6.1

Avg. Salary $78,368

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

Growth Rate 4%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.36%

Asian 4.93%

Black or African American 5.93%

Hispanic or Latino 7.62%

Unknown 5.59%

White 75.58%

Gender

female 50.45%

male 49.55%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Complexity Level

9.3

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Key steps to become an author

Explore author education requirements

Most common author degrees

Bachelor's

59.9 %

Master's

15.9 %

Associate

10.0 %

Start to develop specific author skills

Skills	Percentages
Veterans	17.29%
JAN	15.00%
DOD	10.36%
HTML	9.38%
Twitter	5.34%

Complete relevant author training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New authors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an author based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real author resumes.

Research author duties and responsibilities

Manage and integrate web content for an international client using proprietary CMS software.
Manage the proposal lifecycle, including RFP analysis, regular communications, proposal development and production consistent with branding strategies.
Work on DNA mutagenesis, DNA construction (insertion, deletion), PCR.
Create online marketing materials including a website that employs HTML, JavaScript, PHP, AJAX, and MySQL.

Prepare your author resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your author resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an author resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Author Resume templates

Build a professional Author resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Author resume.

Apply for author jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an author job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do authors rate their job?

What is an author and how to become one

Author career paths