I recently heard of a writer who earns $600K annually; he works about 70 hours a week and says he wouldn’t have it any other way. I know another writer who writes for a regional parenting magazine as a springboard to develop clips before approaching bigger markets. This allows her ample time to rekindle her love of fiction writing and to tend to her two young children.

Which of these writers is more successful? If you were to ask them, they’d both offer compelling arguments. Both are pursuing their passions in ways that satisfy them. Each yields specific but very different financial, emotional, and professional rewards.

During the month of June, we’re going to be examining what it means to be successful as a writer. Does merely getting paid count? The amount per word? The number of hits and comments to your blog? How about landing that first book deal? And while money certainly isn’t everything, for how much longer must the writing profession fall under that stereotypical beret of the "starving artist?"

We’ll feature interviews with writers who honed their own personal definitions of success and share some of our own experiences in this pursuit.

You may have noticed that we’ve taken down the message boards for now, but in the meantime, comments to our posts are open again. Feel free to share your thoughts and your own success stories, big, small, lucky, or hard-won. And look for more frequents posts and interviews this month!

–Toni