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We’re guessing that the publishing industry, like most industries, isn’t one for deep introspection. You know, a scandal here, a scandal there. Given the number of books published every year, the percentage of horrors is relatively low.

But we like to think that the Kaavya Viswanathan story is starting more than a few discussions in the halls of publishers — or at least in the halls of the blogosphere — about the role of book packagers in what we like to think of as a creative industry.

Book packagers are not evil. Generally, they are honorable and useful. Alloy Entertainment isn’t breaking any rules by putting ideas and authors together. We like to romanticize our industry by thinking that all novels are born from the author’s imagination, even though we know full well that’s not the case. What makes the Alloy aspect of the Viswanathan story feel so sordid is, well, the way it all played out.

The New York Observer goes into some detail about how Opal Mehta moved through the publishing stream. This was not a novel written and shopped in the traditional mode. By most accounts, Viswanathan had about 30 pages of a good start to a novel. This, as we all know, is not the same thing as having a good novel.

Viswanathan was signed to the William Morris Agency based on the strength of this initial proposal:

Opal Mehta’s journey to Alloy was not entirely linear. According to William Morris sources, Ms. Viswanathan first signed with agent Suzanne Gluck, who then passed the author to a junior agent in her office. The junior agent worked with Ms. Viswanathan and eventually hit a wall in terms of developing a commercial proposal. The junior agent then suggested that the writer speak with Josh Bank at Alloy. The Opal Mehta idea emerged from Ms. Viswanathan’s conversations with Mr. Bank; once an outline was ready, it was decided that another William Morris agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, would try to sell it to publishers, which she did, to Little, Brown.

As you see, when the book was contracted, it wasn’t yet a book. It was an outline. Again, there’s a great distance between outline and book. Little, Brown must have felt confident that the team involved with Viswanathan would come back with a finished, commercial product. Everyone involved clearly thought they had a hook, an angle, a marketing miracle when this first-time, unproven, untested author was brought into the inner circle.

Had the plagiarism allegations never arisen, possibly the entire team — William Morris, Alloy Entertainment, Little, Brown — would be taking bows for their ability to spot and nurture talent. They’d have a great story. They’d have the kind of success that would launch a million agents in search of 17-year old wannabe authors.

Instead they ended up with the kind of mess that makes everyone involved look bad. There are no heroes here.

• Viswanathan-athon: Plagiarizing Writer Fell in Weird Alloy

Technorati Tags: Kaavya Viswanathan, Opal Mehta, publishing, Alloy Entertainment, William Morris, Little Brown, plagiarism