If you’re a writer, downloading and deleting spam can eat up precious minutes out of your day and disrupt your writing groove. If you’re a writer, you probably use e-mail to find sources and post to writers’ discussion groups — hence more spam. You see the problem.

Here’s quick and easy way to can the spam, and it’s gratis: Sign up for an account at Sneakemail. It doesn’t cost anything, though they do ask for donations to keep this great service going. You can create a new e-mail address any time you need one (for example, when you need to enter your e-mail address into a request-for-info form or when you send a ProfNet query) and give the address a distinct “label” (such as “Redbook Article Aug06″ or “WritersMarket Signup Form”). Any e-mails sent to that address will be tagged with the label you chose, so you’ll know where they came from and can easily filter them to the right mailbox. If the address starts getting spam, you can simply shut down that address. [LF]

If you liked that post, you might also like:

• How to Handle an Overload of Sources
• Break This Rule: Always Send Your Query to the E-Mail Address Listed in the Guidelines
• How to Organize Your Assignments, Research, Interviews & All the Rest
• Funny subject line story (or why editors don’t respond to hot teen party e-mails)
• How to Find an Editor’s E-mail Address