Publishing Goals, Growth & Sustainability
As a team, we are driven to provide a strong lineup to readers. Over the course of our first 3-5 years, we are hoping to publish 15-20 books each year, hoping to reach our higher goal at the beginning as we look to establish a name for ourselves. As a House, we hope to experience strong growth in our formative years (years 1-3) as we look to give queer readers and their allies dynamic stories to read, and with this growth, we hope to expand our operations when the time is right. Hopefully this will be possible beginning after the first 3 years; depending on the market, but potentially in years 4-5.
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To ensure that we are seen by the people we are marketing to, we will implement a strong social media presence for the brand from the beginning, giving us access to our reader base while also importantly giving them access to us. Creating a strong relationship with readers will establish the brand loyalty that Sap House aspires to create. The social media platforms that will be used are Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, which all have very strong book loving communities. Our team will, in the beginning, all help with promoting the house, giving us a broader reach through more circles of influence. We will also create connections with other Canadian authors in the community, because the circle is already tight-knit.
Full-time positions will likely remain with upper and mid-level staff, while part-time positions are fulfilled by lower-level staff. All management positions will be selected and delegated by Ash. As the Senior Editor, Sienna will be responsible for overseeing any editorial interns, and Krysta will handle marketing projects and internships in that department. These positions will most likely be filled by younger people entering the industry. Furthermore, we will offer internships to young queer professionals seeking to connect with the professional side of the industry, providing them with mentorship, a look behind the curtain of what it takes to publish a book. Our goal is to inspire diverse young individuals to enter the industry.
Our publishing model will be a hybrid format of both digital and some hardcopies. This model is to reflect the changing climate of book sales, as it has more to offer and is more cost-effective to produce digital copies. As a small press, cost is very important to us, and spending too much money in one area can harm business in another. We are striving for accessibility across all projects, which means that resources will be allocated to audio and ebook formats. However, for lovers of physical books, paperback will be an option, but will not be the primary format in which we publish. The paperbacks themselves will also not be a wide release, we will be partnering with queer owned small bookstores for the availability of our physical products. Our primary focus will be on audio and ebook formats because of the accessibility for all that they provide in addition to cost-effectiveness all around.
Market Position, Competition, & Differentiation
The plan for our publishing venture is to corner a large portion of the LGBTQIA+ focused digital book market within Canada. At the moment, the majority of publishers that publish a large amount of LGBTQIA+ focused books within Canada do so with it being a small portion of their repertoire. Arsenal Pulp Press, perhaps one of the more well-known queer publishers in Canada, publishes a vide variety of genres. Their focus is on thought-provoking stories and titles include those on social issues, gender studies, BIPOC, as well as LGBTQIA+. Another publisher of queer stories in Canada is Insomniac Press. They specialize in unique themes and boundary testing stories. Perhaps the closest publisher to what Sap House aims to be in terms of identity is Harmony Ink, an American publisher that specializes in publishing YA and New Adult stories with strong LGBTQIA+ voices and characters.
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While many publishers have taken to publishing LGBTQIA+ stories as a part of their season, there still remains a void within Canadian publishing. At Sap House, our focus is on publishing strong LGBTQIA+ Canadian voices that represent their identity on the pages of their manuscript. Our goal is not to simply publish queer stories, but to publish ones that provide strong role models for marginalized readers. We want to bring to life characters with strong growth, identity, and authenticity while promoting Canadian voices. However, queer voices are not just limited to Canada, but will hopefully speak to individuals from all parts of the world. The literary markets of North America are interconnected; this gateway allows for a window of opportunity to reach out and connect with readers all across the Western Hemisphere.