I worked on my High School Yearbook one year. It was before desktop publishing, which has made that part easier, but we still had to pre-sell the books, collect the money, and distribute them. At the first APPO National Conference Picaboo Yearbooks was a vendor. I looked and thought they had nice books, but really didn’t give it much thought as that isn’t the market we’re focus on. Recently APPO and Picaboo Yearbooks formed a partnership and we meet with the local Picaboo Yearbook Dealer in our area. Oh WOW! There is a revolution in the yearbook industry and my wife Susan, who does most of the design work at PSG Photo Solutions, is perfect to help schools and organizations manage the project of making a yearbook.
Even though the digital age is here in force, the yearbook industry hasn’t moved forward into the digital world in terms of printing. Picaboo Yearbooks is taking on-demand printing and is revolutionizing the process. Instead of schools needing to order X number of books in December, they can let the families or students order at will. No more upfront cost and books sitting in storage. Each student or member of the organization can customize their copy of the yearbook when they order!
The other thing this does is allow more than just schools to have “yearbooks”. Summer camps, theatre groups, music schools, churches, synagogues, or any group that might find a book for its members helpful can use this service. Take a look at this video from Picaboo Yearbooks, done for a speech at a HP conference and hear some of the things they are doing.
http://youtu.be/RU7FD5dBhA4
What school or group would you like to see have its own book?
