Hopkins North Jr High Students Offered Chance to Publish Books

February is I Love to Read Month, and as part of the celebration, Hopkins North Junior High School invited Sigma’s Bookshelf co-founder Rachel M. Anderson to the school on Feb. 8 and 9 to lead a presentation on writing and publishing.

During the presentation, “Empowering Teen Writers to Become Published Authors,” Anderson discussed the different types of books on the market, including fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi and fantasy; and the reasons writers write, which include to inform, inspire and entertain. The presentation also educated students on the types of publishing available and how to submit a book to Sigma’s Bookshelf, what is believed to be the first and only publishing company exclusively for teen authors.

Sigma’s Bookshelf is an independent book publishing company founded in 2016 by Anderson’s teenage son, Justin, who is now 16 and a junior at Wayzata High School. The company’s mission is to help teen writers get books they have written published free of charge to them. The teen authors are also paid royalties for books that sell online and in stores.

Justin’s first taste of the publishing world came in 2015 when his mother helped him self-publish the book, “Saving Stripes: A Kitty’s Story,”which tells the true story of the cat family he helped rescue from the point of view of the orange tabby he ended up adopting. To date, more than 300 copies of the book have sold with 100 percent of the profits benefiting S.O.S. Rescue Relief of Plymouth. The nonprofit, whose mission is to prevent euthanasia in adoptable animals, helped with the rescue.

Justin came up with the idea for Sigma’s Bookshelf after being overwhelmed by all the attention he was getting for his first book. He wanted to help other teens enjoy their own publishing success.

The company has now published seven books written by teenagers, including Justin’s second book, the novel, “Nothing But Trouble,” which tells the story of a teenager who transforms into a lizard-like humanoid creature after having been a test subject in a cancer-cure project gone terribly wrong. “Nothing But Trouble” and Sigma’s Bookshelf’s other teen authored titles are available for purchase online at www.SigmasBookshelf.com/Books.

Sigma’s Bookshelf is a sponsored project of Springboard for the Arts, a nonprofit arts services organization. Contributions on behalf of Sigma’s Bookshelf are tax deductible and can be made online at www.SigmasBookshelf.com/donate.

# # #