A note about the cost: I always feel a bit hesitant to say the books cost $80. I know that is a lot for most of our students.  Here is the story behind that:

What most people don’t know is that we LOSE money on every book we sell.  Yea, that’s right.  I said lose money.

Last year, for example, the final bill for the publishing of the book was over $89,000. That is a lot of money.  (As a side note: the 98-99 book was merely $39,000; my prices have risen!)  The school, of course, doesn’t provide a penny toward the publication.

Now, in a typical year we sell just over 1,000 copies of the book.  If you do the math, you see that each book costs us roughly $89.

Couple that with the fact that in a typical year we sell just under 70% of the books at registration when the price of the books is only $60. So we lose about $29 per book on around 650-700 books. That is a loss of as much as $20,300!

On top of that, the school provides NONE of the equipment or software we use to create the book.  Our lab now contains 20 various models of Macintosh computers and the software we need to create the book.  All of this has been purchased over the last 8-9 years with whatever we have remaining at the end of a given year.

Our yearbook staff is stuck with the task of making the money to pay for all of this. Part of the cost comes from selling Otis Spunkmeyer cookies (man, those are good). Part comes in the form of business ads (thank you to our advertisers). Part comes from personal ads.  And the rest comes from fundraising, mainly picture sales.

We also stagger the cost of the book throughout the year.  As I mentioned, at registration, the book is only $60.  After that and until we actually place an order for a given number of books, we raise the price a bit. 

After we place our order in late January, we raise the price to $80 until mid-April, usually until right before the signing party.  Thereafter, the cost of the book remains at $80.  This helps us off-set the cost of the gamble on how many extra, unpaid-for books to order. We still have to pay for every book ordered, so if I guess wrong, I will be stuck with a bill for a lot of books that will sit in boxes for eternity.

Since I took over the program in 1999-2000, we have always ended the year in the black. I hope this year will be no different.

So, if you are considering purchasing a yearbook, please help us reach our goal and provide your student with a lifetime of memories by purchasing a book (or two!).