The Spine Collector

Chameleon

Audiochuck | Campside Media

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, Tv & Film

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For years, someone was tricking publishers into handing over yet-to-be-published manuscripts—from bestselling authors and total unknowns alike. There were no ransom demands. The books were not leaked. The motive was unclear. An international mystery that baffled the publishing world for years. But two journalists in lockdown set out to solve the mystery and uncover the peculiarly obsessed culprit.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Camp site media
0:02.9	Hello
0:05.7	What is the what do you want me to say?
0:08.7	Oh it's just my
0:09.8	Camelian
0:10.9	Camelian Weekly
0:12.6	I'm friends with this
0:17.4	Book Scout and I'd been writing about
0:20.2	the publishing world for a couple of years by that point.
0:23.8	And he was like, oh, my God, you have to do this story.
0:29.1	You need to solve this case because it's driving me and everyone else I know crazy.
0:35.2	This is Lila Shapiro, a features writer for New York Magazine.
0:39.8	It was back in 2019 when a friend asked her to drinks because someone somewhere was stealing
0:45.8	manuscripts of books that had yet to be published by impersonating a variety of figures
0:50.7	from the industry.
0:52.1	Editors, agents, scouts, everyone knew someone who'd been targeted.
0:58.0	The stolen manuscripts were from many countries in many languages.
1:02.0	Some by massively successful authors like Margaret Atwood and Stieg Larson, and even Ethan Hawk.
1:08.0	Others, though, were from relative unknowns.
1:12.9	You know, he sent me a bunch of emails.
1:18.6	He'd been impersonated and connected me with a couple of people who'd also been impersonated.
1:20.3	Lila was intrigued.
	...

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