This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the Helping Writers

Become Authors Podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this week's episode,

How to Know When You're a Successful Author.

How to Know when you're a successful author? I suppose almost every writer asks that at some point and very likely at frequent points. There are multiple ways to define and measure the answer.

For many of us, the answer seems to come down

to commercial success.

And yet, because commercial success is

success is sometimes elusive,

this ultimate metric often seems at least vaguely

unsatisfactory.

Recently, word player Rhonda Denise Johnson emailed me the following thoughts on the topic.

If you haven't already, would you be interested in doing an article on how to know when you're a successful

author? What is the Cinequon of a professional success? When you land a deal with a big publishing

house, so indie authors should count themselves out

when your Aunt Harriet stops asking you when you're going to get a job

to paraphrase a writer is not without honor except in his own house.

I sometimes feel discouraged because I've been disappointed by the quality of writing in one

too many so-called bestsellers.

It leaves me feeling like excellence doesn't matter in this industry as long as your books sell.

What we do when we craft a novel seems too precious to be measured in dollars and cents like merchandise, vacuum cleaners, and cheeseburgers.

How then should an author measure herself and how does he know when he's made it as an author?

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