Every agent and editor rejects submissions, and every agent and editor has stories of being hassled unpleasantly by post, by email, in person, or even stalked, by a writer whose writing they have rejected.

But this is worse than usual:

http://mybookgoggles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/authors-behaving-badly-attack-on-pam.html

So if you ever feel that agents are a little wary of free and open two-way contact with those who've submitted their writing, that's why...

And it makes you even more astonished that they are willing to come to writers conferences like York and Winchester.

Emma

Poor woman! Hope she's all right!

Holy sh*t!

I went to hear a very famous thriller writer give a talk earlier this year and he said he has a stalker - he mentioned another famous writer who has got one - made me wonder if pretty much everybody famous has got one. Having someone who thinks you've wronged them and wants to kill you is another level, though.

I went to hear a very famous thriller writer give a talk earlier this year and he said he has a stalker

I was a tad taken aback to find myself the only one in a festival green room of 6 or 7 writers who didn't have someone who at least was a obsessive fan - and most of them had had one or two slightly disturbing encounters...

And I remember an editor of my acquaintance who said she kept receiving photos by email from someone she'd rejected, showing her at all the stages of her journey home. Horrid.

Awful. And there's such a thing as 'normal' hate mail? Unbelievable.

And it makes you even more astonished that they are willing to come to writers conferences like York and Winchester.

I'm not sure I agree with this. It's obviously awful that this poor woman was attacked in this way, but I think it makes agents sound ever so slightly precious if they think they are being singled out for special treatment and are somehow brave for appearing in public. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of nutters/ needy people/ angry people out there, and almost any job that involves dealing with the public in some way is a potential target.

I know at least one doctor and several teachers who have all inspired scary devotion and anger at various times. Even weirder, when I worked in advertising we had several situations that ended up with police involvement.

In one case I was working on a long-running, fairly famous TV campaign which often inspired people to write or ring up with their ideas for the next ad in the campaign. This wasn't unusual and basically they used to get fobbed off politely. One man was very persistent, though. The first time I spoke to him, he gave me this spiel about how he had lodged his idea with his lawyer, so if we stole it from him he would sue us. It turned out he had talked to pretty much everyone on the team, trying to sell us his idea. When no-one bought it, he became gradually angrier and more threatening, until eventually he turned up at the agency and when he couldn't get a serious meeting he turned nasty and the police were called.

There are lots of strange people out there.

I agree with Saturday here. Although this is an awful story, its probably a reflection of general society rather than of one specific industry.

In my new job - I have been told that there are at least twenty kids in my school that are likely to punch walls, people or throw chairs across the room at you. These angry young kids if not helped will end up being angry adults.

It's very sad and quite fightening

Yes, there are some weird people. I assume with those kinds of stories they're people whose ego is so fragile that any kind of rejection threatens their whole being: so they fight aggressively to prevent that happening.

I don't think agents etc. are being precious about it - they're they're getting on with their job, hate-mail and all, and telling stories about work as we all do.

But I remember walking to Havant station alone, very late one evening after an event, and sitting for a good half hour on a totally deserted station out of sight of the one person in the ticket office, and thinking, "If someone at the gig had asked me to read their novel and I'd said I couldn't (which has happened elsewhere), and they'd taken exception to that and followed me here..."

And at the first York festival one of the book doctors - not an agent - was threatened and harrassed through the day by one of the writers after she'd broken it to him gently and supportively that the novel had a lot wrong with it and would need a lot of work. They had to get security and get him chucked out in the end. But actually there would have been no physical/administrative barrier to stop him coming back.

<Added>

Crossed with Eve - yes, what goes on in schools sometimes is scary.

That's fascinating, Saturday. I'd never have guessed people reacted to advertising like that.

That's fascinating, Saturday. I'd never have guessed people reacted to advertising like that.

Yes, it's very common that people suggest ideas for well-known brands or quirky campaigns.

I think it's partly because most people have a creative streak but have no outlet for it. If they don't read novels or poetry or listen to music, then none of these outlets will feel right, but advertising is everywhere, part of everyday life, so it feels much more accessible. It's probably a similar drive to the one that pushes some people to invent stuff in their garden shed or make toys or novelty cakes or greetings cards. And though lots of people disapprove of advertising or think it's dross, every so often a campaign comes along that catches their attention and presses their creative button. Plus of course, from the outside it looks terribly easy - how hard can it be to come up with a 30 second commercial or a poster?

Obviously, it's only a small minority who will actually approach an agency, and an even smaller minority who will become persistent or aggressive (same as with people who are trying who are trying to get published), but I run focus groups and it's amazing how many people have an idea they want to tell me about that they've been hugging to themselves for ages.

it's really sad when you think about it, all these people with creative streaks and no outlets and no-one who appears to be interested in sharing them.

There's definitely a novel in there. And a point about how adverts are the place that most people see stories and characters nowadays. I find advertising really fascinating, actually. I kind of wanted to go into it as job but I couldn't really work out how! (I was a bit clueless in my youth).

I find advertising really fascinating, actually.

it is. I was a strategic planner, not a creative, but even so, it's absolutely fascinating for a writer. This week I've been researching different versions of the same proposition - basically, it's the same core idea, but expressed using different words and images to create different tones of voice. You wouldn't believe how the various propositions can trigger completely different reactions. Sometimes you can get one sentence wrong (or right) and it completely alters the way people react.

I was a bit clueless in my youth

Weren't we all!