With a wave of second semester comes a wave of new goals, and for Echowan, surpassing their sales goal for the 2025 school year has been consistent all-year round. The publication has stayed ahead of its sales goal while working on effective student body coverage and informing the Park community about the “why” behind the book.
According to Echowan advisor and Park English teacher Kelsey Hanson, the upselling of yearbooks has been heavily influenced by the Echowan editorial team. She said Echowan has been working to make the yearbook representative of all aspects of student life.
“(Upselling) is a reflection of the really hard work that students have been doing,” Hanson said. “It’s an effect of two big pushes that we’ve had. We have, number one, our biggest goal this year was to increase our coverage, and coverage means that we are representing the students that are in the yearbook. A lofty goal set by Jostens is what’s called “50% coverage,” and that means that half of your student body is covered at least three times or more in the yearbook, and right now, we’re super close to that, and we haven’t even done our last two packages. When we go to get interviews or take pictures, we’re being very intentional and making sure students that maybe don’t play sports or are involved in other ways, that their existence in our building is recognized and valued and that we care what their thoughts are. We want to make sure that everybody is in the book.”
Senior and Echowan editor-in-chief Sarah Tirado said there has been a new approach to sales this year. She said the publication has been spreading the word about the yearbook by reaching out to families in a number of ways.
“We’ve definitely been doing a lot of things differently with sales this year,” Tirado said. “One of the biggest things that we noticed got a lot more books sold was putting reminders to buy books in the 6425 News and sending out messages to parents and families because when the parents know about buying the books, they’re a lot more likely to do it than if we just tell the students.”
Sophomore and photo editor Calvin Koski said he has contributed to informing the Park community about the importance of yearbooks. He said it’s important to recognize that some areas of the world don’t have yearbook-like concepts when selling to a diverse community.
“We really strived this year to reach as many audiences as possible. I went to a conference night, set up a stand outside and I was trying to interact with all types of parents of all backgrounds, all ethnic groups, trying to make sure that everybody buys a book,” Koski said. “It’s not the same (for) people who grew up in America that already know the culture of your book. Not every place in the world has a yearbook, so we really strive to make sure everybody understands what a yearbook is and why everybody should buy one.”
Hanson said the publication took time to reflect on last year’s book and worked to make both improvements and expand school event coverage beyond athletics.
“We decided to cover clubs in the same way that we cover sports because when we were reflecting, we reflected a lot on last year’s yearbook, number one, but when we were reflecting on really how we cover events in our building, we were over emphasizing athletics, which is a really important part of the high school experience and it’s a way that our students give back to our community, but there’s also a group of students who are not necessarily athletic, but have passions in other places that are also equally as important and another way that they give back to our community,” Hanson said. “So we decided to cover clubs how we cover sports in order to show we care about our entire student body, not just athletics, although we care about you guys too. I think that has been a really big change in what we do with our yearbook.”
According to Tirado, the refined coverage practices Echowan has taken on might influence students to purchase a yearbook. She said while people don’t know the content in the book prior to purchasing it, she hopes the expanded coverage will help students to appreciate the book.
“A lot of the time, people don’t know what’s in it until they buy it, but this year, I hope a lot more people will enjoy it because I think we’ve been covering the student body a little bit more, and we have clubs in there, which, in the past, we didn’t really cover,” Tirado said. “I think that’s definitely going to help more people want to buy it because they’ll see themselves in it more.”
Koski said the sales team and collective efforts from Echowan staff have contributed to the widespread knowledge amongst the Park student body regarding deadlines and how to access the purchasing website.
“Our whole staff has done a really good job making sure people know that the yearbook is available, knowing where to (and) how to buy it,” Koski said. “I think it’s very easy to access the website to buy and I think how great our sales team is by making sure everybody knows deadlines (and providing) reminders that cause people to buy books.”
Jostens, known for its production of yearbooks, offers “risk-free” copies that a publication can sell and return what they don’t sell free of cost. Hanson said students and families should purchase in advance to ensure access to a yearbook.
“Jostens does offer some risk-free copies and we are going to secure some but it’s no guarantee that we will have books for every single person that wants one unless they buy them right now,” Hanson said. “Right now, anyone can get a book. If you order before the end of April, you’ll have a book, you just need to order now. Once they’re delivered, that’s all we get.”
According to Tirado, the publication makes decisions on how many yearbooks to purchase based on sales data from the previous year.
“The number of books that we sell per year, we base it on the year previous and we just up our sales goal a little bit more, and then that’s how much we decide to sell,” Tirado said.
Koski said he encourages students to purchase a yearbook. He said they’re nice keepsakes in looking back on high school memories.
“Buy your yearbook—everybody should buy a yearbook. It’s a great way to remember your high school year, and it’s a great way to see all (of) the memories you had over the year,” Koski said.
Hanson said she is willing to support students in acquiring a yearbook at no cost if funds are a barrier on an as-needed basis.
“Yearbooks are super expensive and I want to acknowledge that that’s an obstacle for some students, and if that is truly an obstacle for seniors specifically, I can work with Jostens to secure a yearbook for them at no cost on an as-needed basis, just to put that out there,” Hanson said.
