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So you want to write for children. Perhaps you've read your little ones to sleep each night with their favorite picture books. Or you're an elementary teacher and you love reading great children's literature to your students. Or you just love reading children's books yourself. That's great. A love of children's literature is essential for anyone who wants to write for the children's market.

Now suppose that you're thinking of writing a picture book. Children love good picture books with their rhythmic language and colorful illustrations. The difficulty is that writing picture books is a lot harder than it looks. It's also the first form of children's literature that most new authors try to write, so publisher slush piles are piled high with picture book submissions. Competition is stiff, and many beginners soon give up in frustration, sure that they lack the talent to write for children.

Don't give up hope yet! Instead, take a stroll through the children's section of the library. You'll find a lot more than picture books shelved there. Now take turn down the nonfiction aisles. Look at all those books! Books on elephants, tigers, and lions. Books on trains, helicopters, and skyscrapers. Books on crafts, games, and holidays. Biographies of everyone from Hammurabi to Britney Spears.

Someone had to write those books. That someone could be you.

Librarians need good nonfiction, and it must be new nonfiction. When a well-read classic fiction book wears out, it's replaced with a new copy of the same title. But when a nonfiction title wears out, it's replaced with a brand new, up-to-date book. There's a continuous need for new titles, and thus a continuous need on the part of the educational publishers for authors to produce new books.

How can you write for the school and library market? There are two ways to approach educational publishers. Some publishers want authors to send a query and a proposal for a specific book that fits their line, or for an existing series. Others assign topics to authors, and prefer to see a writing resume and samples. Some publishers will accept both.

First, you'll need to find the names of good educational publishers. Again, the library is a good place to start. Use the information on the inside covers of books to find out who published them. Get the address and website. Some publishers (such as Enslow, Capstone, and Perfection Learning) are exclusively school and library publishers, while others (such as DK and HarperCollins) and have a broader

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