What’s the best deadline strategy for completing a great yearbook with as little stress as possible? Is it best to hold your pages as long as possible to ensure continuity and consistency? Or would it feel less stressful to divide the pages and submit them on a planned schedule throughout the year, starting in late October or early November (for a spring-delivery book)?
When I first started advising, there wasn’t an option.
We submitted pages throughout the year starting in the fall. Lately, however, I’ve noticed some schools negotiating much later deadlines.
This may happen for a variety of well-intentioned reasons. Rather than being a positive though, I believe this “hold-your-pages” strategy creates significantly more stress without a significant increase in quality.
With that in mind, let’s start submitting those pages early. The first step is to craft and lock down your ladder as early as possible.
1 | Step One: Decide on Your Organizational Structure
As you begin planning for next year, first decide which organizational strategy will best match your theme. Do you want to stick with the traditional structure – opening, student life, academics, clubs, sports, people, reference and ads? Or do you want to use a chronological structure organized by month, school schedule or season?
Your theme might even call for a complete restructuring of the book. One year, my students chose “Foundations” as their theme and built sections around “Character,” “Fraternity,” “Knowledge,” “Experience,” “Direction” and “Community.” The content was redistributed in unique ways under each of these categories and explained to readers in the opening, on the dividers and finally in the colophon.
2 | Step Two: Review Last Year’s Ladder
Work from last year’s ladder and make sure every group, event and topic that needs coverage is included. What essentials appear in the book every year?
Make a list of each sport, event, club and activity in last year’s book. Then assess if any should have been covered but were missed. Base the number of pages allotted to ads and tributes off last year, and review the number of students in each class along with the number of pages each class had in the people section.
3 | Step Three: Create a First Draft of the Ladder
With all the information that you gather, create a first draft of your ladder. Leave room for events and topics that may come up as the year progresses. Remember, your ladder should be a living, flexible document that can adapt to new coverage ideas and change.
4 | Step Four: Determine the Best Order of Submission
Determine which pages you can submit first. What can you complete and move off your plate? If you utilize chronological coverage, this should be easy! As your submitted page count increases, your stress will decrease with each new deadline.
If you sell ads and senior tributes, send these pages in as early as possible. Complete underclass photos and retakes early so those pages can be finished next. The underclassmen people pages were often the first to carry real design and coverage significance, and they often helped me identify my most talented designers.
Next, we worked on summer coverage and fall events, then finished up seniors and fall sports before winter break.
5 | Step Five: Set Page Goals and Specific Deadlines
Now that you know the order, set a goal for your first submission in late October or early November, with additional submissions each month. Select the number of pages for each deadline. Once production begins, you have five to six months to complete the book, so assign a deadline to every page every two weeks to a month.
We sent 24-36 pages every two or three weeks (our book ranged from 290-370 pages), which helped us keep both the remaining page count and stress level down.
6 | Step Six: Enjoy a Much More Relaxing Production Cycle
Once we adopted this approach, February, which had once been affectionately known as “the month of tears,” became just another month with a reasonable number of pages to produce.
Reduce Stress and Enjoy the Process
By spending time early perfecting your ladder, determining which pages can be completed earliest and developing a deadline structure that ensures you complete and submit pages throughout the year, you will be in much better shape to finish the book with a minimum amount of stress. You might even enjoy the process a little bit more.
If you love yearbook, then you’ll love the full issue of Idea File magazine, available at walsworthyearbooks.com/ideafile. And if you’re interested in finding out more ways Walsworth can help you create a smoother, easier yearbook experience, reach out to your local Walsworth rep.
