In one corner of the bulletin board that hangs on the wall above my work desk, I have an inspirational postcard which was sent to me a few years ago by a beloved childhood friend. It has a picture of a rainbow and reads “Better Days Ahead.”

Let’s just say that these days, I look at it a lot.

With the exception of the month of May, the time period from March up to and including the present day has seen business dry up for the most part. It’s not because my clients are ditching me—none of them have. It’s because they simply have not had work for me to do. Everyone who is in the independent editing business knows that work is either “feast or famine,” to use a tired cliché, and that the income is not steady.

It has not been often that I do my books at the end of the month and see that my expenses outweighed my earnings. But that is what happened in June.

However, I do believe what that postcard says—there are better days ahead.

The retail company for whom I edit is gearing up to begin creating its yearly catalogs, and in the fall and early winter, those keep me quite busy (and earn me quite a bit). The company will also be redesigning its website soon, and that will give me a lot of work to do next year, since there are many pages on the site.

The university for whom I edit scientific research manuscripts is getting ready to launch a public relations campaign to encourage more researchers to use its editing service.

Right now, I am researching biochemistry and biology departments at various R01 research universities and sending cold emails to department chairs, offering my editing services for their department’s manuscripts. This takes a lot of courage and thick skin. I have thus far received one response, consisting of eight words: “Please remove my name from your mailing list.”

Still, I carry on. Eventually one of them will show interest in my services.

Fellow freelance editors, what do you do to encourage yourself when you are down?