Familius Internship Kick-Off

Hi!

Christopher Robbins
(yes that's his real name!)

First, no, I'm not an intern.  I was generously invited to attend the Provo Library to meet with the publisher of my upcoming book, You Should! You Should!, Christopher Robbins (in person for my very first time!) from "Familius" and his team, as they held an internship kick-off with students and graduates interning as editors, designers, and film-makers. There were about 16 of us all together.  I learned a lot, and am super grateful for the invite.  Christopher Robbins is awesome, and so is his team!



He told us some fun stories, introduced his family of 9 kids,

(son Taylor, top right, joined us for lunch later - I head some great stories about his Grandma!)

 and let us get to know him a bit.  Then he talked about Familius' Mission Statement a bit.  I loved what he said:

"I am convinced that the family is the basic central unit of society.  If we want to fix the problems in society, we have to fix the family.  Forget Legistlation, forget everything else... if the family is successful then so is the world."  (basically something like that... he probably said it a lot cooler and more eloquently, but I loved what he said and completely agree!)

Something interesting and unexpected.... he said the "ebook" market is plateauing and reports are showing that the people who were buying ebooks are now buying more books in print than ebooks again.  (I was afraid the world was going totally digital.  There's just nothing like holding a book in your hand.  Ya know?)

Shared Secret from Christopher Robbins:  "Everyone is making it up as they go along."  When anyone asks, "Can you do this?"  Always say, "Yes."  You can get online, research it, figure it out, and do it.  He came back to this concept a few times.

David Miles
Design Director... etc... or  something cool like that

Break Out Session with David Miles:  Cover Design

I am going to design my book with text and layout, so I got a chance to hear from the Book Design Director (um... or whatever his actual title is) David Miles.  He raised my interest because he'd written and illustrated a children's book of his own once, Mrs. McFig and the Very Big Wig - (beautiful illustrations!)

We discussed two elements as to why people buy books:

1.  Tangible Benefits

~Learn to cook
~Become a better parent
~Enjoyable, suspenseful, highly rated, entertaining

2.  Intangible Benefits

~Learn to bake fresh bread like Mom's kitchen
~I can do it!  I'm worth something!
~Toilet train kids... thank goodness

If we understand what makes a product important to the consumer, we can use that information to design something that matches.  We use elements such as font, color, white space, images, etc... to match the overall feelings and benefits we want to portray.

Lunch at Brick Oven

I was even invited to join them all for Pizza at the Brick Oven afterward - YUM.  It's 7:30 pm and I'm still full.  This was when I finally was like, "Oh yeah, I should take pictures."

So here ya go:

Mmmm... PIZZA!
Chrisopher Robbins is there on the left.  His neice on his left and we can see David Miles' nose on his right.

Apparently the blonde dude on the end with the glasses... is named Sam and will be helping me with my book editing and layout!  I didn't know he was "the dude" until after he left.  Welp, Sam, looks like we'll be friends and I'll be talking with you soon!  :)

I left feeling VERY inspired, excited, and full of even more ideas.  I rushed home to get back to work.  First I lied on my bed and cried because I was hit a huge stress headache and that typical, "Holy smokes... there is a LOT to do." And then I said, "I'll worry about it out later, right now I gotta work."  And I sat down to work.  Here's what I've been doing today: