Is the economy affecting you as a writer?

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Rob Brown

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As an agent, I'm seeing things slow considerably. This has been the slowest summer in a long time and. because Sept 15 was the beginning of the season, we are seeing a slowdown. However, that's to be expected as the whole economy is slowing. I'm sure things will get better after the first of the year, but much depends on the bailout, whether it happens and whether it works. Good luck to all of you in the meantime and keep up that wonderful spirit!!
 

triceretops

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Writing? No. Sales, yes. My agent informs me, also passing correspondance along, that many of the editors are even more selective because of the economy. If things weren't tight enough. Sept has been ungodly slow for editor response to me. I have 25 subs out there, and 15 of them are way past the nudge stage.

Tri
 

jessicaorr

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Not yet, but gas prices are cutting into my book budget. Which means that they're probably cutting into other reader's spending... Though I don't think most people budget quite as much for books as I do.
 
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Pamster

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I have been so busy with family, I'd say no, it's not the economy making me not write, it's no time, my time management needs tweaking...;)
 

Jenan Mac

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Mr. Mac just spent part of the summer being unemployed-- his company just closed the door one day, after making all sorts of claims that they were being bought and things were going to be fine, wonderful, sunshine and kittens. (Insert curse of choice aimed toward company owner, who is, by all accounts, a lying rat-bastard with a fat bank account in the Caribbean.) So yeah, extreme poverty and sharing the computer with a man who spent 14 hours a day sending out resumes and filling out unemployment questionnaires kinda crimped things. OTOH, his obsession with the computer helped get him a new job, so that was good. And it also gave me ample time to rethink what I'm doing-- which can be good or bad, depending on how you feel about the scenario of totally abandoning a huge project and starting a new, huger one.
 

Darzian

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't a recession affect the entire US population to some extent? Today's events certainly suggest the possibility of a recession. A newspaper even said that a recession may be the only long-term solution to the present financial crisis.
 

Spiny Norman

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I just sold my first novel, but haven't signed yet. Apparently they take a while to go through the contract, since it's an international publisher, and it's a 6-8 week process. I'm worried though, but it may be for no reason.

The book doesn't come out til Fall/Winter 09/10, so hopefully things will be better then. I'm doubtful, but then I'm always doubtful.
 

Phot's Moll

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No and no - but I'm in the UK and I don't things are so bad over here.
 

Don

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Well, this crash came two years earlier than I was hoping for, so 20k words of a novel about the crash went in the trash, and I haven't come up with my next idea yet, so I'm spinning my wheels at the moment.
 

johnnysannie

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Are you personally feeling the pain of the bad economy?

How has it affected your writing/career? Or not?

1. Yes. My husband's company - where he has been employed for 23 years - cut hours which cut wages so we're living on less in a time when everything costs much more.

2. Newspapers, including the two majors in my state (KC Star and St.Louis Post-Dispatch) are laying off employees. The paper I freelance for is in trouble; their stock is now worth 45 cents a share, so low it isn't even on the stock market any longer. So my freelance income is being affected even as we speak.

I am finding that markets are buying less, taking longer to make a decision, that the economic pressure trickles down to using more in-house staff writers than freelancers, and that my writing income is affected.

I am also - for the first time in more than twelve years of full-time freelancing - back in the workforce as a substitute school teacher. I'm working 2-3 days out of 5, making guaranteed money paid once a month. It takes time away from freelancing but it's steady money. With this economy and our family's diminished income, I can't wait months to be paid as I have in the past.

So, in answer to the questions, yes and yes.
 
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