Publisher Profile: Rebel Goose Books
The CBC asks Susan Pi, Publisher, questions about the publisher.
How did your publishing house start out?
A lot of things had to come together for me to start a publishing house, so I’ll just share how the heart of the company came to be: I became a mom and the love I have for my daughter forms the foundation of Rebel Goose. I will love her no matter who she is or what she chooses to do with her life. If I can look at my daughter and know she is beautiful and worthy exactly as she is, why would I want anything less for other children? That’s the heart of Rebel Goose Books. We don’t publish books to fix children. We publish books to remind them they were never broken in the first place.
What is your publishing house most known for?
We are brand new, so time will tell. What I hope we will be known for is that our books help build the kind of world we wish we’d had growing up. Every Rebel Goose story begins with the same promise: you belong here, your voice matters, and the world is brighter when you let yourself shine.
Where in the country is your house based? What do you love about being based there?
We’re based on Vancouver Island in Canada. I love being surrounded by forests and oceans. The trees are still wild here, which inspires creativity and serves as a reminder that living things don’t need to be cultivated or fixed to be beautiful.
How many books does your house aim to publish per season/year?
We follow a slow-publishing model and focus on a small number of books each year. We’d rather devote significant attention and care to a few exceptional projects than publish a large list.
Which title has your house recently rallied behind?
Our debut title, Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants by Chris Paul (Rainbows) Farias, was our red-carpet, confetti, blood, sweat, and tears moment. We poured everything we had into that book because we wanted to kick the doors open and announce ourselves to the world: “Hi! We’re finally here! We publish books with big hearts because we care too much.” And…the book took on a life of its own. It inspired donations, partnerships, and acts of generosity from people who believed in its message. The story stopped belonging to its creators and started belonging to the people who need it. What a humbling and deeply moving thing to experience.
Which upcoming titles is your house buzzing about?
We’re really excited about The Way I Win. It’s a picture book about a neurodivergent boy who learns that thinking differently is what helps him succeed in his first jiu-jitsu tournament. After that, we’ve got The Last Tiger, a beautiful, wordless picture book about a solitary tiger who lands on a mysterious island of black and orange cats, hoping to find another like her.
What else would you like to tell us about your house and the amazing work you all do?
People ask me all the time how I came up with the name. People tend to stereotype geese as aggressive and messy. But if you spend time watching them, you’ll see that they’re fiercely protective, deeply loyal, and completely unapologetic about taking up space. That felt like the perfect symbol for the kind of publishing company I wanted to build. “Rebel” is there because too much of the world is spent telling people who they should be, whereas we all need loving acceptance to discover who we already are. It’s about having the courage to live truthfully and to make room for others to do the same.
Thank you, Rebel Goose Books!
Learn more about our member publishers by reading more Publisher Profiles.
