Book Drama! Mysterious Manuscript Theif Busted By FBI!

[shittysoup]

EXCLUSIVE It has baffled the book world for years. Somebody has been stealing unpublished manuscripts by impersonating editors, authors, agents and scouts online. Today, the FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini, a young rights coordinator at a major publisher. https://t.co/zlEA9N5GWr
- Elizabeth A. Harris (@Liz_A_Harris) January 5, 2022
The New York

Comments

[angriest_girl]

Okay, I’m a bit stupid so can someone dumb this down for me? Why did he steal them - what was he doing with them?

[musicnkisses]

They don’t know. I’m thinking he either stolen them to just read them or because he worked for an actual publisher he was scouting out talent to poach.

[angriest_girl]

Weird. Thank you for that ❤️

[squirrels_oh_no]

It was probably him trying to get ahead in his career and help his employer, although it's unknown if Simon and Schuster knew that their rights coordinator was stealing books and info on sales/etc. Kinda like corporate espionage by a go-getting dumbass fool of an employee most likely.

[potter_lover456]

I'm not an expert in publishing, but a key piece of information is he worked for a UK publishing company. So if he had advanced notice of US books, he could get in earlier on deals for foreign publishing rights and seem like a better employee.

[goldenmeans]

Translation is a big money maker, so that right will always stay with the US publisher- if the author has assigned those rights to their publisher, of course. Otherwise it will be managed by their agent, or by themselves if they are stupid.

[potter_lover456]

That's a blanket statement that isn't true. Publishers may want worldwide rights, but it can and should be negotiated. Some agents talk about the decision factors for them here: https://www.janefriedman.com/literary-agents-discuss-foreign-rights-and-the-international-book-market/

I only did one small internship with a publisher, but I did track contracts, including if they had foreign rights or not. It wasn't a 100% given.

Edit: I reread your comment and I think what you meant by assigning rights is the negotiation process I'm describing here. In this guy's case, if a book didn't have worldwide rights, could he not get in early with the agent to get UK or other rights? Whereas other publishers would have to wait for the agent to put it on sub internationally?

[goldenmeans]

I've worked in publishing for over a decade. I said IF the AUTHOR has assigned the rights to the US publisher. I have never handled an English reprint agreement (and I have handled a lot of them) that granted translation rights to the UK publisher. Literally never.

ETA: If an agent handles translation they would want that royalty income, so they wouldn't grant translation to the UK publisher. I've never seen an author grant translation rights to a reprint publisher. That really doesn't make sense.

I think this guy was just fucking around because he was a low-paid coordinator who was trying to stick it to his publishing house. In his position as I see it, there is nothing for him to gain (strictly with regards to the sale of US texts).

[potter_lover456]

Edit: I think we're responding before seeing the edits because now I see what you think he's doing.

You did say if and I missed that on my first read, sorry for that. ♥️

If you're open to answering, would you say this bit in the article is more about competitive knowledge?

"Early knowledge in a rights department could be an advantage for an employee trying to prove his worth. Publishers compete and bid to publish work abroad, for example, and knowing what’s coming, who is buying what and how much they’re paying could give companies an edge.

“What he’s been stealing,” said Kelly Farber, a literary scout, “is basically a huge amount of information that any publisher anywhere would be able to use to their advantage.”"

I read it as him having early knowledge to use for himself/the department in negotiations, but based on what you're saying it could be more about knowing what your competitors are doing to forecast your own decisions?

[goldenmeans]

No worries! I'm cranky because it's not Friday yet

[potter_lover456]

WAIT I just realized I was using foreign rights to include UK rights and they're entirely separate categories aren't they? Please ignore me, I'm a very tired dummy and I'm going to go to sleep.

Genuinely, thank you for challenging my ignorance ♥️

[goldenmeans]

LOL, no problem! I like discussing rights since I'm not part of that side of it anymore. I've always categorized it as UK reprint rights and then translation rights- two separate entries on your author agreement.

[debbiesgirl]