Hacker Guccifer leaked the first 50 pages of author Candace Bushnell's new novel "Killing Monica."
A hacker who goes by the name Guccifer has been terrorizing celebrities for some time. After famous personalities like George W Bush and other political figures, author Candace Bushnell is the latest of Guccifer's victims.
The hacker broke into the author's EarthLink email account and posted a tweet through her Twitter account which had a link to screenshots of the first fifty pages of Bushnell's new novel "Killing Monica."
Along with these screenshots were also screenshots of Bushnell's communication with the publisher about the hack and how to have the leaked content taken off the Internet.
Although Bushnell appears an odd target for a hacker who, according to the Smoking Gun, "has previously claimed that his hacking interest revolves around exposing members of the Illuminati [and] Bush administrations", she is not the first author to have her work appear online against her wishes.
In 2008, Stephenie Meyer found that her draft of Midnight Sun - a followup to the Twilight stories told from the vampire Edward's perspective - had been leaked.
"I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely," Meyer said at the time.
Bushnell has not commented on the hack as yet but publishing consultant Jack Perry said that this could be seen as an opportunity to launch the book in a bigger way that previously thought.
"The pages are not edited nor approved for consumers. But her fans know that and will be thrilled to get a 'sneak peak'," he wrote. "This is great publicity for a book that isn't even written yet ... People will remember when the book comes out that is was the one that was hacked and released. The publisher can work to take it down and spend a lot of energy fighting this or they can embrace the chaos and go with it. Once it leaks, it will always be available. So why not work with it?"