Are Academic Essay Writers Professional Writers?

On what basis would you suggest that "almost all academic writers are professionals"? I'd suggest that the exact opposite is true, which is precisely why first-time customers in this industry get ripped off (or badly disappointed) so frequently and why a forum such as this one is necessary. In my experience, the vast majority of those who represent themselves as professional academic writers are totally unqualified rank amateurs who are, at best, merely hoping to begin doing this for a living. For every one of us who actually does this fulltime for a living, there are probably somewhere between 10 and 100 who are nowhere even remotely close to being able to represent themselves honestly and accurately as "professional writers" of any kind, whatsoever.

I think that the reputation that holds from being an essay writer also counts. And that quite a chunk of the essay writers I know hold the job for extra income, considering that it is not generally perceived as a long-term career. There are many reasons behind this, of course. I do still agree that hinting yourself as a professional writer while working at this is quite off-putting. I have known a few others who consider themselves as editors and/or researchers - but would never say they're professional writers.

Anybody who works in a job that requires him to use his brain and his hands should be considered a professional. Professionals are often described as office workers who punch the clock and get paid an hourly wage. Academic essay writers are no different from these 9-5 pavement walkers in that sense. We get paid what is similar to an hourly wage, and we get fined if we punch the clock (turn in a paper) late. Thee are many similarities between office professionals and academic writers, all of which point to how academic writers, based on an office worker criteria, is most definitely, a professional writer. Remember, professional writers work for magazines, newspapers, advertising agencies, and the like. An academic writer works on the same materials that those white collar workers also write about. We just don't do it from a formal office. So, based on these comparison points, professional writers and academic writers are definitely cut from the same cloth.

It's not a regulated field (at all) and it's fully saturated by rank amateurs and criminal rip-off artists. However, those of us who actually earn a full-time living doing this (and doing it well) are definitely professional writers. The work itself is much more challenging than the writing I did as a full-time writer/editor for the federal government and I have to do a lot more writing to earn a living; but I'm able to earn approximately the same as my government job paid. The biggest differences are that I have to pay for my own health insurance and I take a big tax hit being self-employed; but it's more than worth not having to get up at 6:00 AM and commute back and forth to an office five days a week. Another difference is that as a government writer, I routinely went several weeks or more at a time without a single assignment to do, which never happens in this industry.