Fellow freelancers: Has the poor economy impacted your work?

Roughly until it’s the majority view of publishers’ style guides that there’s a verb “to impact” (meaning “to affect”)<grin>, my free-lance work (i moonlight as a copy-editor of college-level scientific and technical textbooks) will almost certainly not be hurt by the poor economy—in fact, seeing that people are evidently judging that re-training and additional education are appropriate uses for a spell of unemployment, the amount of work that is offered to me might well increase, and i’ve seen no evidence of a fall in payment rates.

i grant, however, that my situation is probably unusual.

As an artist my product royalties have declined. But my originals are still selling well for the time being.

@LexWordsmith “But impact was a verb in English before it was a noun; it is first attested in 1601 and was brought in straight from the past participle of the Latin verb that also gave us impinge.”

From Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage pg. 527.

“impact (v.) 1601, “press closely into something,” from L. impactus, pp. of impingere “to push into, dash against” (see impinge). Originally sense preserved in impacted teeth (1876). Sense of “strike forcefully against something” first recorded 1916.”

Online etymology dictionary.

Yes. I have had no contract work from my agency in 4+ months and none from my private sources in just as long.

It’s a massive grab, nowadays.

I used to dabble in graphic design, now I’m in freelance writing – for god knows how long. It’s hard to find something that pays more than, say, 3 dollars/500 word article.

Ugh. Don’t remind me.

* headdesk *

Oh, by the way – what resources do you use? I used to be on Guru and other such websites before they became heavily trafficed and more commercial – now I just use connections and networking (which, quite frankly, ain’t workin’ out like they used to).

I’m looking to expand – do you use any websites/services in particular?

So far, my work has remained steady and I just got a large contract; however, I do think things will start to slow down towards the end of the year. I have some smaller clients that have scaled back their level of work and are putting holds on pending projects.

My sales on the Internet are down, so yes, the economy has affected me.

Writers can always turn to porn. I’m told that’s fairly lucrative, and the market never seems to soften, so to speak.

You had me at porn.

@Marina : Yes, that’s the verb “im-PACT”, which no one now uses except in the fossil phrase “impacted teeth.” i was talking about what one hears now, “IM-pact” as a verb rather than a noun; likewise “CON-tact”.

yes it has a bit

My workload is off the hook. Booked solid for the next three months, with scattered jobs scheduled through to the end of the year. But then, I’ve earned a 30 year reputation for fairness and efficiency.

Things didn’t get this way until I fired all my time wasting bad clients. Getting rid of them is the best thing ever. I throw down the gauntlet once a year to get shed of all the problem clients and vendors. Life is much better now.