I completely understand that some writers are concerned about their personal information. However, there are ways to handle that concern without coming across as unprofessional or setting up roadblocks for editors and publishers who want to respond to submissions.

Here’s a particularly effective method which I know is used by several authors who submit work to EDF: with all the free email services available, it’s easy to set up an email address specifically for the publication you’re dealing with (such as, for example, authorsname.edfsubs@gmail.com). So you may have five or six or more of these, if you’re submitting regularly to a bunch of venues, but you don’t have to check them individually — just set them all up to appear in your Outlook inbox (or whatever program you use). This is relatively easy to do; I have five email addresses and check them all in one place. Then, if one publication should be so horrible and dishonest as to sell or abuse your email address, you can delete that account without affecting anything but your relationship with that one publication (which would anyway already be spoiled).

Again, I’m very sorry you had such an unfortunate experience.

I’ve set up a system which annoys me somewhat. I did this because I gave three nice, open and friendly addresses to a (only one) person I trusted and had known for years – then we had a fight.

I received 270 pages (50 per page) of Viagra, Penile implants, Pfizer and Homosexual/Heterosexual/Transexual – and recently he’s placed me on a couple of dating sites.

MY ISP is helping me sort it all out. We’re down to 30 – 40 special Spam a day now.

I’m ‘gunshy’

I know you are very busy, just take a look from our end of the binoculars. Some of us are scared, that’s why we set up ‘blocks’.

But way to go for these people, who are apparently living in their own fantasy world.