FBI Arrests Man Accused of Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts

> One of the leading theories in the publishing world, which is rife with speculation over the thefts, is that they are the work of someone in the literary scouting community. Scouts arrange for the sale of book rights to international publishers as well as to film and television producers, and what their clients pay for is early access to information — so an unedited manuscript, for example, would have value to them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/books/publishing-manuscri...

So as I interpret it, there is a black market for this stuff because publishers and producers want to find and move on the opportunity before anyone else. It also sounds like it's a bit of an ego thing.