The Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism case has brought to light a profession many outside the publishing world have probably been completely unaware of: that of the “book packager.” Alongside Viswanathan’s name (and those of countless other authors) on the copyright page is the name “Alloy Entertainment,” which specializes in coming up with ideas, characters, and plotlines that test well with a certain demographic of readers, then hiring an author to flesh out the details.