Do your fingers sweat at the thought of trying to write non-fiction? Do you cringe at the thought of choosing a topic? Does your mind swirl at the potential chaos of the research process? These simple steps will help you get focused, organized and have fun on the road to publication.

ONE: Read your market; read from front to back, back to front. Analyze its contents, style, voice and target age group.

TWO: When you have found a market that you feel strongly drawn to, check to see if they use theme lists. Themes lists can be a great jumping off point to generate ideas and many all-nonfiction magazines use them. When you find a theme that excited you, brainstorm, using a theme web with related topics branching off. Your web might include topics like bee farming, bee hives, bee pollen, etc... Choose some closely related topics, and focus on those. If you can, look at back issues of your market to see if your topic has been recently covered. Select a topic that is likely not to have been done before or lately anyhow. (ie. bees that don't sting, solitary bees) This is your "aha" factor which will make your article stand out from the many "how bees make honey" articles.

THREE: Round up your resources. This involves doing a number of things at once. Find someone who has an expertise on the topic of interest, and who is willing to answer questions about it. Always let your interview subject know that you are intending to use the information in an article intended for publication. When you use email as initial contact for interview requests, you will almost always get an email response. Consider that agreement, when you get it, as consent for legal purposes and keep a record of it on your computer or print it out for your records. Look up titles of books/magazines/etc that can help you put your article together and add them to your file that for that particular article. Links to websites, complete with printouts of the information you need, also go into your word processing file and file folder, so that when you are ready to write you have it all in one place. Part of researching is visiting libraries (local, church, university etc.) or doing searches and requesting relevant books/journals to be sent by interlibrary loan. Make sure you are able to get everything long before the editor contacts you to say that they want to run your article. Remember to note everything you will need for your bibliography and add it to your files.

FOUR: Now that your expert is prepared to answer questions and your print and web resources are in order, it's time to prepare your outline for the publisher. The outline shows the editor that this is more than just some mental meandering on your part. It boldly announces, "I have a plan. I am ready to use it." The outline acts much like the skeleton for your article; you can add sinew, flesh and all the other details later. The great thing is that if you can get away with only sending an outline, you won't have to do a total re-write on your article if the editor only likes some of your idea.

FIVE: Write your query letter, keeping it short and sweet. Follow the publisher's directions precisely regarding queries/submissions and send it. Wait.

SIX: Still waiting? That's okay. While you wait, don't sit there checking your email every two minutes or going out to the mailbox at six in the morning on a Sunday to see if there's an acceptance letter. Repeat steps one through six with the billion or so other ideas that you have floating around in your head. Go back to step three and check your market guides to see what other publishers would like an article about non-honey producing bees or bees in the city. Think of at least five other publishers that you can approach with a similar theme as this article; after all, if this publisher doesn't like your idea enough to buy it, you're going to have to find a way to justify all that work you did for an article that went no-where. Make your research work for you.

SEVEN: When, make that if, the publisher says "Yes, I love it, please send me your article on lonely bees," you need to get busy, taking lead from the editor of course. Be flexible and willing to work with your editor and they will want to work with you again. Now is the time to contact your resident expert with your questions that you had prepared; you did do that, didn't you?

EIGHT: Write your article. Keep the writing tight, lively and interesting. Have fun. Chances are that if you are having fun writing the article, children will enjoy reading it.

NINE: Read your article. Edit. Put it down for a day. Read and edit again. Contact a writing friend that you trust and ask them to read your article and make suggestions. Listen to their criticism with an open heart and mind. Use that criticism to sharpen your writing. Give your article one more read-through. Make sure all spelling and grammar and verb tenses are correct. Did you write within your word limits stated by the publisher in your contract? Good job!

TEN: Send your finished manuscript to the editor so that it will arrive on time at their offices. While you're at it, save yourself a couple stamps and make sure that you remember to invoice the publisher, especially if it tells you to do so in your contract. You did read it, right? When the editor contacts you to make changes to your article, ask for clarification if necessary, but return your work to them quickly and courteously. Mark the date that you should receive payment by on your calendar in case you need to follow-up.

ELEVEN: Celebrate having sold your article. Buy some new magazines while you wait for your contributor copies. If nothing else, it will give you some great reading material and more ideas for new articles.

TWELVE: Repeat.