What is the True Definition of an Author?

is it just someone who writes, or do they have to have published a book?What is the True Definition of an Author?
Author is defined as someone who creates a written work determining responsibility for what is created.





However in the publishing industry if you say you are an author a editor or agent will then immediately ask what have you written and who are you published with. So you ride a slippery slope attaching yourself to the term. As a non-professional my expectations were no less. If someone said they were an author I would immediately as what they wrote and who are they published with. I would immediately dismiss anyone who was self-published but I did learn that there are authors of medical essays, law briefs, psychology cases, dissertations that are published because of the impact on the subject and research results that impact science. I'd never looked at those people as authors but in their fields there names are tossed around with the same reverence as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, Fern Michaels, SMeyer, Rowling etc.What is the True Definition of an Author?
An author doesn't have to be someone has written and published it out to the world. It's just a 'title' for people who write stories. Sure Author is the public and professional name for someone who has published a book. But when telling someone your an author, you must be specific.
there has recently been a question on what is a 'writer', you can trace it in the search bar, it was rather extensive.