The industry is changing drastically to the detriment of the independent abstractor. If you are relying on it exclusively as a source of income, you will probably experience difficulty in the days to come.

Expanding your areas of coverage to supplement lost income is a losing proposition if you are the only one performing abstracting. You would need to increase the number of searches completed in a day, and thereby decrease the amount of time devoted to each search. The quality of the product suffers. You can hire additional abstractors , and recapture a portion of the lost income after you pay them, employer contribution to FICA and benefits (if any), but that requires you to spend more time on business administration and less time in the field.

Offering the discount pricing to the client that you mentioned above is a precarious business arrangement. Very often the client will deliver the volume for a few weeks or months, but reduce the volume of work thereafter. However, they will expect the discount to continue after they no longer deliver the volume. If you are offering discount pricing make certain that you have a written agreement for it. They tend to be more responsive when the agreement is in writing. 

As both you and Jay have noted the abstractors that multi task and offer other services besides abstracting alone get the business. Time is the great leveler in this business. There are only so many hours in a day that the town halls/court houses are open to complete searches. Rather than expand your geographic area of coverage, it is easier to expand the number of services you offer. Most closings are done in the evenings at the convenience of the borrowers. The money is much better than abstracting. Your price negotiating power is greater. There are scores of signing services that go in and out of business every month, and the pool of clients constantly replenishes itself.

However, you do need to stay on top of them to make sure you get paid on time, and not be afraid to enforce timely payment through legal process.It is easier than you may think. 

You can offer closing services to an existing client or to new clients in addition to abstracting services, increase the number of hours in a work day, increase your income and rely less on the mercy of the VM.s for abstracting assignments.Unlike abstracting electronic automation is not yet a threat to closing work. It is also impossible to outsource the work because state statutes require the signing agent/attorney closer to be present at the closing to officiate.

In a small number of states the signing agents are required to work under the supervision of an attorney. In another small number of states there are special training and licensing requirements. Maryland is one, and I believe Illinois and Indiana are moving in that direction. As far as I know Tennessee is not among them, but you would need to check its requirements before beginning as a signing agent if you are interested