Rant Roger Lewis

Email silence It is a lonely existence at the best of times, being an author. I often think a mass murderer in solitary confinement would enjoy more company. At least the guards shove food through a hatch in the door, which would be human contact of a kind.

People stopped sending each other letters years ago, when emails came in. Then phone calls dried up – again because of emails and ‘texts’. But lately I have noticed that even if I send an email I’m unlikely to get an email in response. The silence is pervasive, quite frightening and (for the hectic freelance ) paranoia-inducing.

Labour-saving devices often backfire. Dishwasher machines and microwaves didn’t liberate women from drudgery. They were simply the opportunity for another kind of drudgery, with people now shackled behind desks in offices or counters in shops. Similarly, with the advances in communications technology, nobody seems to have time for the quickest of words. Why?

I believe that one of the main problems is bad manners. I was brought up always to acknowledge a letter, no matter how batty. This was simply a common courtesy. Today, however, if I attempt to contact a features editor or an agent – people who know who I am, who have taken my work frequently in the past – as often as not I’ll be greeted by a big hush. Yet how am I to anticipate when the moment has come for me to move on and approach someone else with an idea for an article or book? Is telepathy assumed? It is humiliating being ignored. A very passive-aggressive thing to do to a person who is only trying to make a living.

Recently I lost patience with a senior woman editor, so printed off my emails and posted them to her, recorded delivery. This elicited a response. ‘I get about 250 emails a day and email management is about impossible,’ she said. I replied immediately: ‘Well, here is your 251st one of the morning, then.’