I have had various assistants over the years. Some have worked out better than others. Several have come from the local Christian college, Hope International University. They have spent a semester with me and received three units of college credit. One of them is now working for Harvest House Publishers, we get together every year at ICRS.
If you have a college nearby with a communications department, you might see if they have students who need internships. You don’t pay them for the amount of time the internship requires. After they put in those hours, I paid them $10 an hour, which is what I normally pay assistants.
I currently have a part-time assistant, Melissa, who takes care of the mail when I travel. She also takes care of the phones if I go overseas. She recently married a website designer, so he has taken over all of my website and computer needs. He is wonderful. You can click on his name, Alex Bezuska at the bottom of my website, www.christiancommunicator.com to check out his work.
I only need Melissa for those few tasks because my husband has become my new assistant since he retired. He edits all my work, keeps all my records, and does a lot of the income tax stuff. He does all the things I hate to do! Plus he accompanies me to most my conferences and sells my books.