First, the news (as they say). Even though today's news is just taunting me to write a column ("20th state legalizes medical marijuana"...), I am not going to. I am taking a day off because I can finally state that I have reached a milestone on my writing project. Every "I" has been dotted, every "T" crossed (or should that, more pedantically, be "every 'i' has been dotted," one wonders?)... where was I? Oh, right, milestone!

The Milestone

To sell a nonfiction book, you have to have three things. Other than the idea that you're writing the book about in the first place, I suppose. OK, four things. Well, it really behooves you to have five things, actually, but the fifth one is not strictly necessary. Sorry if this all seems a little loopy, but what I'm trying to say is I've finally reached the point -- taking a mere 22 months longer than I thought it would -- which I set out as a goal for the month of August, 2011. Or was it 2010? It's all a blur, really.

I have now completed the three things which are an absolute "must" to sell a nonfiction book to a publisher. The first is sample chapters. Three out of a planned eleven chapters have been finalized (thanks to all the reviewers out there, you know who you are!). Check. The second I struggled with, because it is basically a marketing document, and I'm not very good at that sort of thing when it comes to my own efforts. But the formal book proposal was finalized a few weeks ago. Double-check. The last part was, in a way, the easiest, but also in a way the hardest. But I now have not only completed a one-page "this is the best thing written since man invented writing" sales pitch (called a "query letter"), and have now started sending it out! Which is where the optional-but-extremely-helpful item comes in, as I'll be sending this out to literary agents for the next few weeks. This could be a slow process, so there may not be any further news for a long while, but having an agent is extraordinarily helpful when trying to navigate the waters of the publishing business. So, wish me luck....

The Warning

This is the more-serious portion of this program note, as it may directly affect you, the reader. Like all blogs, occasionally we come under attack from comment spammers. These things ebb and flow, but in the past few months this nefarious activity has reached a peak. I've been spending a lot of time making sure that you folks aren't impacted by it (meaning no spam comments actually have appeared, to the best of my knowledge and abilities), but I'm about to clean house, starting this weekend.

By "clean house" I mean I'm about to start deleting bogus users by the hundreds from this site's database. Knowing which login name is bogus and which is valid is a matter of opinion (mine alone) and so this may cause some actual, "there's a real person with that login" users to be deleted.

The chances you will be deleted are (hopefully) quite small. Usually, the bogus logins are pretty easy to spot. But I feel duty-bound to warn everyone that there may be problems. Especially if your valid email (part of your login information) ends with "gmail" or "hotmail" or any other systems spammers love to exploit.

The only real reason anyone becomes a user to this site is to be able to comment, I should point out. If you just want to "lurk" and read the stuff here, there's no reason to become a user, really. For those of you who would like to take pre-emptive action to preserve your account, I strongly suggest posting a comment to this program note, below, with some message like "Hey, I exist!" or "I'm a real user!" Especially if you haven't commented for a while. If you aren't even comfortable with that, you can use the "Email Chris" link (either above, in the top menu, or below, in the footer menu) to send me a similar note that nobody else will see.

Now, all the regular commenters to the site (whom we all know and... ahem... love) will not be affected. Because you are regular commenters, I know your names well, and will not be deleting you, so fear not! You won't need to do anything.

I apologize in advance if I cut someone's commenting access off because your login is similar to those chosen by the spammers. You can reach me on Twitter to let me know you've been cut off, or (WARNING: this email address will only exist for the next few weeks) write me an email at: iexist ("at" symbol) chrisweigant (dot) com. I will do my best to see that everyone who is a real user is reinstated, I promise. And I apologize in advance if I delete anyone inadvertently.

In any case, thanks as always for using the site, and I promise I will have a lot more time from now on to pay better attention to answering your comments here. And thanks to everyone for hanging in there with me during our prolonged period of substandard service (heh).

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant