What makes a Yearbook a complete success?
Planning!
Over the years, we have seen school organizations, volunteers, teachers, and students take on the daunting project of creating the school yearbook.
Here are some ideas on what makes the foundation of a successful yearbook:
1. Start brainstorming with your team on what events you want to see featured in the yearbook and how much space do they deserve: Are you allocating half a page to Donuts with Dads and another Half to Muffins with Moms? Do you have a huge Spring Field Day that deserves a full spread (2 pages)? What about a science fair?
2. Now figure out how many pages per class you want.
3. Make a dummy by folding paper to create a mock-up of the yearbook based on what you agreed on in the first two steps. Ask for a quote on a book with more or less the same number of pages.
4. Choose the perfect yearbook software for your school. Some programs allow multiple users editing the book online, others give you facial recognition tallies so you can assure each kid is shown in more than one photo throughout the book…
5. Don’t sign long-term contracts with a yearbook publisher. Choose one that will earn your business by working hard year after year.
6. Many out of town publishers turnaround the books months after you submitted the artwork. Instead, choose one that will allow you to deliver the electronic file as late as possible in the school year and still get the printed books before Memorial Day!
7. Choose a publisher that will help you throughout the process, whether is midnight or a weekend. Having a plan and choosing the right publisher for your yearbook will bring peace of mind, success, and happiness to your school.
I am sharing with you some “Best Practices” I’ve seen from my other PTO/PTA customers that work really well:
Plan in Advance your Contents (August)
In order to accomplish this timeline, I suggest figuring out (1) what school events you want to feature in the book: doughnuts with dads, Christmas party, Spring festival…. Once you know that, then you need to have a couple of parents take the candid photos of those events.
5 to 10 good candid photos per event should suffice. 2 volunteer parents taking photos at each event should be enough. You do not want too many parents sending you photos because you’ll have a very hard time sorting & choosing them.
Figure Out the Rest of your Contents
In addition to agreeing on what events will be covered in the yearbook, you also need to (2) figure out the rest of your table of contents. Most yearbooks include a welcome page with a letter from the Principal, photos of the staff (librarian, janitorial staff, school nurse, etc.), class pictures, and pictures of clubs & extracurricular organizations (for example “after school” YMCA activities).
Have a good idea of your Table of Contents at the beginning of the school year. That way you know what you need to cover and what you need to get from other people (for example, the welcome letter from the Principal.)
Student portraits (January/February)
I also think it would be a good idea to have a professional photographer take the portraits in late January / early February. The professional photographer should have experience in photographing student portraits. This photographer should give you a database with the students’ photos, their names, grade, and teacher. This database “pspa” is a standard file that any commercial photographer should be able to provide you.
Create your file (February) and Review your artwork (March)
If you start working on the actual yearbook file in early February, you’ll have enough candid photos from the school events and the student portraits to prepare a good portion of the book. At that time, you can make sure you are not missing kids’ photos, that all the teachers are also featured, that their names are spelled correctly, that each kid is listed in the correct class/grade, etc, etc.
Send your file to us to prepare your proof (April)
Make changes and corrections and get a physical proof. Yes, we will produce a fully bound book for your review and approval!!! This is a great opportunity to see the “final product” and make all the final modifications and last minute details before going to press.
Approve final file to print (first week in May)
Most of our clients get their yearbooks before Memorial Day as long as they give us files in the agreed schedule *
We pride ourselves on turning around yearbooks faster than any other publisher and the only printer in town offering fully assembled books in small quantities.
Written by our very own Marilu Ballina
