"Strong, Authentic, Proud"
At Sap House, we aim to fill the void created by a lack of powerful, diverse stories. There is a need, particularly in Young Adult genres, for characters with strong identities. Our vision is to see strong, authentic, queer characters brought to life by queer authors. We believe that all readers should have characters in the stories they read that they can see themselves in. Not just characters who are written queer for convenience or fun, but authentic characters who are strong, proud, and unforgiving in their identity. Thus, our venture wants stories that are proudly diverse.
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As we grow and establish ourselves, we would like to use the image of the maple tree and the rainbow to represent our venture. The rainbow represents queer pride and authors as diverse as the colours of the rainbow that we hope to publish. The maple tree represents our Canadian roots as well as the strength and growth that we value within our stories.
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Our motto evolved from the acronym of “SAP;” we wanted something strong, simple, and powerful to explain our vision that was also easy to remember. Throughout its conception, the words that also came to mind were praiseworthy, stimulating, and steadfast. However, the authenticity always existed from the start.
Our Ethos
As a publishing house, our identity is supported by the ideals of our motto: Strong, Authentic, Proud. As individuals, each member of our team embodies these three cornerstone ideas, allowing us to grow as a team and as individuals. Sap House would not be the publishing press that it is without the people that make it possible by bringing their shared sense of ideals into their work.
Inspiration & Motivation
As Directing Manager of the House, Ash provides a strong sense of teamwork and leadership mixed with a strong motivation to put good into the world. They also have a love of social activism; part of which stems from their place in the LGBTQIA+ community. Sienna brings their knowledge of and passion for editorial best practices and a keen attention to details to the team; this allows the rest of the team to focus on where their passion lies. Sienna’s strong passion for queer awareness and content motivates them to craft high quality representative and culturally significant pieces. Krysta contributes her knowledge of current market trends and an excitement for spreading awareness and information to others. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, she is passionate about making marginalized voices heard and creating role models within the literary industry for every individual. The team’s similarities began with a love of books and wanting to see more strong representation in the world. Together, these members of our team are the cornerstones of this press. From these ideas and their mutual love of queer, diverse content, Sap House was grown from the roots up.
Sap House’s motto comes from many places, including the strength that comes from community (in this case, specifically the LGBTQIA+ community), the authenticity of being unapologetically oneself, and the pride that comes from these ideas that our publishing house promotes. Ethically, Sap House is committed to equity, inclusion, and diversity in all of its forms. We believe that every individual deserves to be seen by the media that they consume. Furthermore, there is a small number of books written by diverse authors that are celebrated year round, which leads to a representation issue in publishing. In ensuring that everyone feels seen and represented by our work, we are making space for a diverse and accurate representation of the world that we live in. Sap House will be a safe space and environment for all individuals of diverse backgrounds, and where their differences will be accepted and celebrated.
While our House will always accept any queer writers, our main focus will be writers within Canada. Our name comes from the iconic maple trees (a Canadian icon), which sew their roots into the ground and grow into magnificent trees that we, as Canadians, tap each year to harvest the sap. Our sticky namesake then will ultimately become delicious maple syrup that belongs in every Canadian household, like the books we produce. This motivates Sap House, as a publisher, to be a diverse House that accepts all types of queer and identity stories, no matter the genre. We grow from our strong, authentic, and proud roots into something beautiful when we nurture it carefully.