Making a yearbook used to be a semester-long project. A committee of students would spend months collecting photos, writing captions, designing layouts, negotiating with printers, and arguing about who gets a full page versus a quarter page. The process was expensive, stressful, and required actual skills in graphic design and project management.
That's still how school yearbooks work, but it's not the only way to make one anymore. If you want a yearbook of your own life — your family's year, your friend group's decade, your college experience — you don't need a committee. You don't need design software. You might not even need more than three minutes.
Here's how to make a yearbook, from the traditional route to the fastest method available.
The traditional way to make a yearbook
If you're producing a school yearbook or a large group yearbook from scratch, here's what that process looks like. Fair warning: it's a lot of work.
Step 1: Plan the structure
Decide what sections the yearbook will have. A typical school yearbook includes individual portraits, class photos, clubs and activities, sports teams, events, and a senior section. A non-school yearbook might include sections by season, by trip, by family member, or by theme. Write out a table of contents before you touch a single photo.
Step 2: Collect the content
This is where most yearbook projects stall. You need photos from dozens of people, and getting everyone to send their best shots is like herding cats through a rainstorm. Create a shared folder (Google Drive, Dropbox) with clear naming conventions and deadlines. Assign one person per section to be responsible for collecting content. Set real deadlines, not aspirational ones.
Step 3: Design the layout
Traditional yearbook software like Jostens, Lifetouch, or Entourage Yearbooks provides templates. You drag photos into pre-made grids, add text blocks, adjust fonts. The design phase typically takes 20 to 40 hours for a 100-page yearbook, depending on how particular you are. Every page needs to be checked for photo quality, spelling errors, and balanced composition.
Step 4: Write the copy
Captions, section headers, dedication pages, and that opening letter from the principal nobody reads. Writing yearbook copy is underrated work. Someone has to identify every person in every group photo. Someone has to write something meaningful about the football season that went 2-8. Budget time for this.
Step 5: Review, print, distribute
Proofread everything twice. Send it to the printer. Wait 4 to 8 weeks. Distribute at an event. Total cost for a school yearbook typically ranges from $30 to $80 per copy depending on page count, quantity ordered, and cover type. Total time investment from the committee: 100 to 300 hours across several months.
This process produces great results when done well. But it's obviously not practical for a personal yearbook. You're not going to spend 200 hours designing a book of your family's year. Nobody is.
The fast way: make a yearbook from your social media
There's a method that takes the entire process above and compresses it into under three minutes. No design work. No photo collection. No committee.
My Social Book connects to your Facebook, Instagram, or Dropbox account and automatically generates a printed yearbook from the content you've already posted. The technology handles everything the traditional process requires: content collection, chronological organization, page layout, and design. You preview the result, make edits if you want, and order.
Here's how it works, step by step.
Step 1: Connect your account
Go to My Social Book and choose your content source — Facebook, Instagram (via Professional Account), or Dropbox. The connection is secure and read-only. My Social Book pulls your content to build the book but doesn't post, modify, or store anything on your accounts.
Step 2: Your book builds itself
Within sixty seconds, the system generates your complete yearbook. Every post is arranged chronologically. Photos are laid out automatically with professional design. Dates, captions, likes, and locations from your original posts are preserved on each page. If you've been on Facebook since 2010, you might see a 300-page book appear in front of you. If you're working with a single year of Instagram content, it might be a focused 50-page volume.
Step 3: Preview and edit
Scroll through every page. The preview shows exactly what your printed book will look like. Want to remove a post you'd rather not include? Remove it. Want to narrow the date range to cover just one year instead of five? Adjust it. You can also edit the cover — choose your layout and cover images. You've got control over the final product without having to build it from scratch.
Step 4: Choose your format and order
Pick between softcover and hardcover. Books are 21 cm by 25 cm and range from 25 to 450 pages. Softcover starts at $33 for 25 pages. Hardcover starts at $53. Most customers receive a discount of 40% or more. Place your order and the book ships to your door.
That's it. The entire process, from connecting your account to placing the order, takes less time than making coffee.
Tips for making a better yearbook
Whether you're going the traditional route or the automatic route, these tips apply.
Pick the right time period
A yearbook doesn't have to cover exactly one year. Some of the best ones cover a single summer, a semester abroad, or an entire decade. Think about what period of your life has a clear beginning and end. A wedding year. A baby's first year. Your college four years. The more defined the period, the more the book feels like a complete story.
Don't include everything
More pages doesn't always mean a better book. A 450-page yearbook of everything you posted in fifteen years might be impressive in weight, but a curated 80-page yearbook of your best year will get pulled off the shelf more often. My Social Book's editor lets you remove individual posts before ordering, so you can trim the fat and keep only what matters.
Think about who'll read it
If this yearbook is a gift — for a grandparent, a partner, a retiring colleague — consider what they'd want to see. A grandparent wants photos of the grandchildren. A partner wants the relationship milestones. A colleague wants the team moments. Let the audience shape the content. For more on creating yearbooks as gifts, see our guide to what a social yearbook is and who it's for.
Estimate your page count first
Before committing to a format or budget, know how much content you're working with. On My Social Book, the free preview shows your exact page count before you pay anything. For traditional yearbooks, count your photos and divide by 3 to 5 (the number of photos that fit well on a standard page). A 200-photo collection gives you roughly a 40-to-60-page book.
Add the right words
Photos tell the story, but captions give it voice. In a social yearbook, your original captions are already there — preserved from the day you posted them. For traditional yearbooks, spend time on captions and yearbook quotes. A great quote on a section divider page elevates the whole book.
How long does it take to make a yearbook?
| Method | Time to complete | Skills needed | Cost per copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional (school committee) | 3-6 months | Design, writing, project management | $30-$80 |
| DIY photo book (Mixbook, Shutterfly) | 5-20 hours | Photo selection, basic design | $30-$100 |
| Social yearbook (My Social Book) | Under 3 minutes | None | $33-$53+ (before discounts) |
The right method depends on your situation. If you're producing a school yearbook for 500 students, you need the traditional process. If you want a personal yearbook of your own life and you've been posting on social media for years, the fastest and easiest option is to let your existing content do the work.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make a yearbook from my phone?
Yes. My Social Book works on mobile browsers. Connect your Facebook, Instagram, or Dropbox account from your phone, preview your book, and order. No app download required (though iOS and Android apps are available too).
What if I want content from multiple social media accounts?
You can combine content from Facebook, Instagram, and Dropbox into a single book. Connect each source and the system merges everything chronologically.
Can I make a yearbook of someone else's social media?
You'll need access to their account to connect it. Many customers create books as surprise gifts by logging in with the recipient's permission. It's one of the most popular gift uses — especially for parents making books from their children's accounts, or children creating books for their parents.
How many pages will my yearbook be?
It depends entirely on how much you've posted. A single year of active Facebook use typically produces 50 to 150 pages. Ten years could fill 300 to 450 pages. The free preview shows your exact page count before you commit to anything.
What gets included from my social media posts?
Photos, dates, captions you wrote, the number of likes each post received, and the location if you tagged one. The book preserves the full context of each post, not just the image.
Can I remove posts I don't want in the book?
Yes. The editor lets you preview every page and remove individual posts before ordering. You can also edit the cover layout and images.
Is My Social Book trustworthy?
Twelve years in business, over 700,000 books printed, and a 4.7 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot. The company has been making social yearbooks since 2013.
Ready to see what your yearbook looks like? Start your free preview. It takes sixty seconds and costs nothing to try. For more background on the concept, read our complete guide to social yearbooks, or browse 60+ yearbook quotes and captions for inspiration.
