Meet a Lerner: Lam Lai, New Marketing Intern

Meet marketing intern Lam Lai!

What brings you to Lerner?

I graduated from Macalester College last year, majoring in Creative Writing and Chinese. A professor told me about Lerner and encouraged me to go for it – and now I’m here! It turns out that another professor of mine from Macalester used to be an intern here back in the day, so we have that legacy going on.

I’m headed to New York in the fall for my MFA in Creative Writing. Afterward I want to work in academia, or a place like Lerner.

Describe a day in the life of a marketing intern.

After clocking in, I check my emails and respond to them. Then I become unsure whether or not I have really clocked in, so I go back to double check on that. Then the real work begins.

The tasks vary from day to day. Doing comp requests and mailing out books are extremely popular tasks. If it is catalog season, I will do a lot of proofreading and indexing as well. Making promo newsletters and writing copies for books are my favorite tasks, however. I love watching ads, and getting to “sell” the books in 35 words or less makes me feel alive.

When I have some spare time, I retrieve some of the books I have seen coming up in the catalogs and read them. Afterward I put them right back where they were.

What are you reading now?

I have been reading Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass from Lerner’s First Avenue Classics collection, and 13 Reasons Why, which Jill, our marketing director, gave me.

What’s your best source for finding new book recommendations?

My friends will tell me when they are reading a great book. I keep an eye on literary events that happen in the Twin Cities as well, and take note of the books I see mentioned.