Working On The Side

May 27, 2006 7:31 PM

I need ideas on what job I can do on the side.

I am a school librarian, so I have two months off. I could work in a store or something, but given fuel costs, etc. I'm not sure it would be worth it once taxes were taken out. If possible I'd like to keep an on-the-side job going all year round, and it has to be something I really enjoy doing.

I don't want to tutor (need time AWAY from kids!). I have applied to help with my system's summer school, but getting hired for it is hit-or-miss.

I've done freelance writing before (my Masters is in Creative Writing), and would like to do that, but I'd need something consistent to make a decent extra income. I don't know where to begin! Maybe there are online or professional blogging options? Help a word nerd out!

posted by miltoncat to Work & Money (6 answers total)

I think there's a great market for teachers/school librarians to run programs aimed at *parents* who homeschool, have gifted kids, kids who love reading, etc. You could do seminars through your community centre or school board, put up a website with ebooks, do one-on-one consultations for *parents*, host workshops for parents, etc. Target the upper-middle income earners. I think there's a great opportunity for teachers to get into consulting, although I'm not sure if there's a conflict.

Freelance writing is great. You can do it year-round. If you can learn to write for general and business audiences, there are lots of opportunities to write for the education market. (I actually published my first freelance article on the need for promotion of the trades to high school students and this opened doors to more work with careers and education publications/businesses.) If I can give any further help, drop me an email. Link is in profile.
posted by acoutu at 7:39 PM on May 27, 2006

How about indexing?
posted by rob511 at 7:41 PM on May 27, 2006

How about editing / proof reading books?
posted by zia at 11:03 PM on May 27, 2006

You could try local papers. Getting on the list of people they try when they need a freelancer could get you fairly regular work.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 2:19 AM on May 28, 2006

If you're interested in writing, check out writersweekly.com for markets and archived articles and success stories. I've recently restarted a freelance career (had a baby, needed something to do from home) and although I had good clips they were a bit old/outdated. Lots of success so far, and snowballing.

The Writer's Market book (put out by Writer's Digest) is also great -- I riffle through it every week and find something interesting.

Start with shorter articles/stories and get some published right away, then move on to bigger ones. Try regional magazines. Write about what you know, then move on to what you'd like to know more about.

Good luck!
posted by mdiskin at 4:59 AM on May 29, 2006

We're always looking for articles for the Big6 eNewsletter -- we pay a $50 honorarium per article that is ave. 4-5 pages. Articles must be Big6-related.
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:06 AM on May 31, 2006