3 ms·

Still, every night Koontz places a freshly printed copy of whatever manuscript he’s working on in the fridge — just in case of a conflagration. I know this is

Still, every night Koontz places a freshly printed copy of whatever manuscript he’s working on in the fridge — just in case of a conflagration. I know this is all about showing how eccentric he is, but really? I'd be more interested to understand why he doesn't use offsite backups. The fact that he's printing it implies a digital copy.

m463 3y ago
I suspect premature release of an upcoming book by a hacker group is a more real threat than a fire.
- UberFly 3y ago
  Plus he's probably set in his ways. He also doesn't even use the internet, even to do research.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Was listening to a podcast about this a while back; it's very much a thing (though it's usually via social engineering; emailing the editor pretending to be a translator or similar). There's some mystery over _why_ people do it, IIRC; there's not much money in it.
  - akiselev 3y ago
    I don't think there's much mystery - it's almost entirely for bragging rights. I remember when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was leaked on LUElinks a week or two before release and it was just some random bloke who wanted to impress everyone. Same with the recent Discord leaks.
    - rsynnott 3y ago
      The odd thing is it’s not just the mainstream stuff that this happens with, tho; extremely obscure authors are also targeted.
      - alwa 3y ago
        That was what was so puzzling about it! Extremely sophisticated social engineering techniques over the better part of a decade, for no obvious reason [0]! It did seem to dry up after they arrested Bernardini for it a year or two back [1,2], though: [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/books/publishing-manuscripts-phishing-scam.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/books/publishing-manuscri... [1] https://newrepublic.com/article/165234/filippo-bernardini-literary-publishing-scammer https://newrepublic.com/article/165234/filippo-bernardini-li... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/books/publishing-manuscripts-phishing-scam-filippo-bernardini.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/books/publishing-manuscri...
        rsynnott 3y ago
        Ah! Yes, that’s the guy. Bizarre story. I kind of want him to write a memoir about it, though for maximum irony someone would have to steal it, of course.
  - version_five 3y ago
    My guess is that sort of thing involves the publisher that has early drafts of the manuscript though, was that the case? They seem like a weaker link (more people involved) than the author. Also I'd be curious to know the hierarchy of which leaks are more valuable. I'd speculate (I could be way off) that mass market paperbacks like this are not a hot commodity in the warez world, but then again I don't know what would be. Maybe that's all part of the mystery.

m463 3y ago

I suspect premature release of an upcoming book by a hacker group is a more real threat than a fire.

UberFly 3y ago
Plus he's probably set in his ways. He also doesn't even use the internet, even to do research.
rsynnott 3y ago
Was listening to a podcast about this a while back; it's very much a thing (though it's usually via social engineering; emailing the editor pretending to be a translator or similar). There's some mystery over _why_ people do it, IIRC; there's not much money in it.
- akiselev 3y ago
  I don't think there's much mystery - it's almost entirely for bragging rights. I remember when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was leaked on LUElinks a week or two before release and it was just some random bloke who wanted to impress everyone. Same with the recent Discord leaks.
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    The odd thing is it’s not just the mainstream stuff that this happens with, tho; extremely obscure authors are also targeted.
    - alwa 3y ago
      That was what was so puzzling about it! Extremely sophisticated social engineering techniques over the better part of a decade, for no obvious reason [0]! It did seem to dry up after they arrested Bernardini for it a year or two back [1,2], though: [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/books/publishing-manuscripts-phishing-scam.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/books/publishing-manuscri... [1] https://newrepublic.com/article/165234/filippo-bernardini-literary-publishing-scammer https://newrepublic.com/article/165234/filippo-bernardini-li... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/books/publishing-manuscripts-phishing-scam-filippo-bernardini.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/books/publishing-manuscri...
      - rsynnott 3y ago
        Ah! Yes, that’s the guy. Bizarre story. I kind of want him to write a memoir about it, though for maximum irony someone would have to steal it, of course.
- version_five 3y ago
  My guess is that sort of thing involves the publisher that has early drafts of the manuscript though, was that the case? They seem like a weaker link (more people involved) than the author. Also I'd be curious to know the hierarchy of which leaks are more valuable. I'd speculate (I could be way off) that mass market paperbacks like this are not a hot commodity in the warez world, but then again I don't know what would be. Maybe that's all part of the mystery.