photo books question

[HM]

My father's high school class is trying to put together a nice 'yearbook' with pictures and words from each of the students still around. They figure about 50-55 pages (so 25-27 front back). They aren't getting a lot help from places like Snapfish, and Mixbook came back with a really high cost even with a discount. They'll want to purchase 55 or so of them.

Anyone have any ideas of how they can put one together that will cost about $25-30 each?

Any ideas are welcomed. If your class has done something like this in the past, let me know how you did it. Thanks bunches.

 

[poohfriend77]

Maybe check with local printers (like those that would do banners, brochures, programs, etc) or publishing house. I would think somewhere like that would be able to give you a discount if you're ordering larger quantities of the same book.

 

[lorijohnhill]

Check with Shutterfly

 

[DreamIsaWish]

How important is hardcover? I'm not sure you'll be able to get what you're looking for with hardcover at that price. Shutterfly advertises "yearbooks as low as $8" but I believe they're softcover and I'm going to assume it's 20 pages. I've never priced out a "yearbook" with them, but it might be what you're looking for.

Also think about what book size is important. At Shutterfly, 8x8 hardcovers start at $30 while 8x11 are $40. Every extra page beyond 20 is $1.29 (and that's every side of the page, not the number of pieces of paper). So you can see that some choices increase the cost quickly. What compromises are they willing to make? It might be possible if you get lucky and hit a 50% off sale and choose softcover. 8x8 softcover is $20 plus $40 for 30 extra pages. That's $60 and if you hit a 50% sale you'd be down to $30, just barely in your budget. (But watch out because some of the 50% sales only apply to the base 20-page book, not the extra pages.)

 

[starry_solo]

Winkflash was good at one point, not sure if they still have good deals.

 

[flateacher]

I agree with trying Shutterfly. At first the price of a hardcover will seem expensive but they always have 40% off deals where it might bring down the cost. Shutter fly also lets you "stack" certain codes and coupons. I use them at Christmas time for our yearly photo book gifts and seem to remember being able to get a hardcover for around $30 with codes etc.

 

[DreamIsaWish]

I agree with trying Shutterfly. At first the price of a hardcover will seem expensive but they always have 40% off deals where it might bring down the cost. Shutter fly also lets you "stack" certain codes and coupons. I use them at Christmas time for our yearly photo book gifts and seem to remember being able to get a hardcover for around $30 with codes etc.

I agree that you can do fantastic with Shutterfly -- I love them! But beware that not all codes stack. You can use one "$ off" OR one "free book", but not both on the same order (because the free book is actually something like $34.99 off of a book). If you have a $ off and a % off, you can use both but the % is calculated after the $. So for a $40 book with a $20 code and say 40% off, it's $40-$20 = $20 and then $20*60% = $12.

Years ago they used to reverse the order and it would have been $40*60% = $24 and then $24-$20 = $4. Still a great product! But that switch in order of operations makes a big difference in cost and you just need to be aware that's how it's calculated (on a side note, it especially irritates me when my $20 code was advertised in a similar way to a gift certificate such as when I get Santa pictures at the mall I get $20 to spend at Shutterfly, but it's actually only worth $12 if there's a sale code; I know what I'm getting into now after many many orders, but someone who just sees the "get $20 at Shutterfly" is bound to be disappointed).

But with patience you can definitely still get great products at great prices. I suppose that's why I don't really want to count how many Shutterfly books I have on my shelves at home...

 

[KarenAylwood]

How important is hardcover? I'm not sure you'll be able to get what you're looking for with hardcover at that price. Shutterfly advertises "yearbooks as low as $8" but I believe they're softcover and I'm going to assume it's 20 pages. I've never priced out a "yearbook" with them, but it might be what you're looking for.

Also think about what book size is important. At Shutterfly, 8x8 hardcovers start at $30 while 8x11 are $40. Every extra page beyond 20 is $1.29 (and that's every side of the page, not the number of pieces of paper). So you can see that some choices increase the cost quickly. What compromises are they willing to make? It might be possible if you get lucky and hit a 50% off sale and choose softcover. 8x8 softcover is $20 plus $40 for 30 extra pages. That's $60 and if you hit a 50% sale you'd be down to $30, just barely in your budget. (But watch out because some of the 50% sales only apply to the base 20-page book, not the extra pages.)

I've been ordering shutterfly for years and always wait until they have a 50% off sale on the books before I order. To be honest, (not to say it hasn't happened) I've never seen a sale when they didn't offer the 50% off on the book plus the additional pages over 20. (and 20 means 10 front and back).

A 50 page 8x11 hardcover would be about $40 before tax if you got a 50% off sale, a soft cover would be about $32 before tax. I agree with DreamIsaWish above- it was so much better when you could stack codes differently!! There are a bunch you can't combine now which has definitely thrown a wrench in things.

 

[DreamIsaWish]

I've been ordering shutterfly for years and always wait until they have a 50% off sale on the books before I order. To be honest, (not to say it hasn't happened) I've never seen a sale when they didn't offer the 50% off on the book plus the additional pages over 20. (and 20 means 10 front and back).

It's been quite recent that they've changed the sale on books. Maybe the last 4-6 months. I was quite surprised when it first happened. I did the math a few times and too the codes in and out of my cart before I figured out what was going on. The "50% off sitewide" sales will do the pages and the book. But the "50% off hardcover books" are hit or miss. I had some codes they had mailed to me with an order for "50% off hardcover books" and nowhere in the fine print did it say the pages were excluded. Granted, it didn't say they were included but it stood to reason that they would be, oh, I don't know, part of the hardcover book. Yeah, not so much anymore.

It definitely never used to be a question (and you probably have been lucky and never run into it yet), but now I just put that out there as a warning to beware, especially as you're probably gearing up for holiday present books. Some codes/sales still work on pages, but others don't and I haven't seen a pattern yet. Just like the reduction of stacking, they're cutting corners on the sales as well. Ah to go back to the days of code stacking where I only paid tax...

 

[DreamIsaWish]

So the sale right now is 50% on hard cover books (first 20 pages only) and 30% off everything else (specifically says "additional photo book pages"). Really stingy! And buried in the fine print. It just means I need to be extra patient until the right sale comes along.

 

[Mickatie]

Try lulu.com. It's an online publisher, but super easy to use. Copy and paste pics/text into word, turn into a PDF (they give you instructions) and upload. I did this for my kids' baby books and got a 285 page hard bound book with color pages for $60 with a coupon. Just look for one in Retailmenot.com or sign up for their emails.

 

[HM]

Thanks for the input folks. I'm going to let him know of some of these ideas.
If anyone comes up with anything else that might work, please add to the thread.