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Sincerely ours
The author of "Dewey Defeats Truman" selects five great collections of letters.
By Thomas Mallon
[12/13/99]

Bedside salivating
Some cookbooks make such great reading (and such lousy guides to fixing dinner) that you never need to take them into the kitchen.
By Ann Hodgman
[12/10/99]

Reviews
"Swaggart" by Ann Rowe Seaman
A thorough biography of the disgraced televangelist drops a bombshell about his Louisiana childhood.
By Virginia Vitzthum
[12/10/99]

Ivory Tower
Play "Misty" for me
When a student turned her affections on me, I learned the values of professional boundaries.
By David Alford
[12/10/99]

Reviews
"20th-Century Dreams" by Nik Cohn and Guy Peellaert
The writer-and-artist team's new bout of cultural nausea is like a tabloid that might be sold at the Whitney Museum.
By Charles Taylor
[12/09/99]

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So the semester's over. What did I learn?

Always ask for the top money; don't deliberately undervalue yourself. (This has already come in handy. Recently asked to work as a writing coach, I was initially shy to request the hourly rate I deserved. Screw that, I thought, and upped the rate. My client agreed without blinking.)

Act like modern corporations -- outsource. Learn how to pimp. You can multiply the number of hours you're making money if you farm out jobs and skim money from the top.

Stop giving information away. If there's going to be a quid pro quo, ask up front. When you make a pitch, never give away all your stuff. For instance, tell them you have a dozen strategies but detail only one.

Students are still powerful. It is possible to call up nearly anyone and get information from him or her, if you say you're a student.

Most of all, I learned that you can make consulting work an engine of social change, not solely an opportunity for self-advancement. Yes, anyone can appoint him- or herself an expert; go get yourself a Power Point presentation and a business card and you too can be a consultant. For graduate students, however, consulting might be the ticket to an intellectual career beyond the university's vaunted halls. I've always known that such a career would be desirable; Reed's class showed me how it was possible.

I'd love to tell you more about how to leverage the lifestyle of an intellectual entrepreneur (TM), but as we say in the biz, let's talk first about my fee.
salon.com | Dec. 13, 1999

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