NYTimes.com
The Book Is Real Enough. It’s the Author That’s Fake.
Monday April 7, 1:39 pm ET
By JOANNE KAUFMAN


In a time of fake news and fake memoirs, why not fake authors?
On Nov. 30, the glamorous, impetuous Kendall Hart — wife, mother, founder of a highly successful perfume company, woman in despair and one of the lead characters on the ABC soap “All My Children” — decided to try a little creative writing as a distraction from the pain of her husband Zach’s sudden (and of course mysterious) disappearance.

Barely two months after Kendall, who is played by the actress Alicia Minshew, set down those first few deathless words, “It was one of those brutally hot, muggy days in August,” her first novel “Charm” was released in the fictional small town of Pine Valley, Pa., as part of the soap’s story line. Concurrently, “Charm” — an actual hardback with a list price of $21.95 — became available in real-life bookstores around the country.

“Charm” was published by Hyperion, which like its sister company that owns “All My Children,” Disney-ABC Television Group, is a Disney property. It has sold more than 100,000 copies and made its debut in February at No. 13 on the New York Times best-seller list. (It has Kendall’s name on the cover but the name of the actual writer is being kept secret.)

Making things even more convoluted, the Hyperion executive editor, Gretchen Young, and the publicity director, Beth Gebhard, had walk-on parts in the publishing party scene on the show, and a fragrance called Charm, which is a product of the cosmetics company in the novel as well as a plot point on the soap, will be on sale in Sears stores nationwide beginning April 14.

These are not the first instances of daytime drama brand extensions, according to Lynn Leahey, editorial director of Soap Opera Digest. Indeed, Kendall’s own mother, Erica Kane, who is played by Susan Lucci, produced the novel “Having it All” in 1997. It too was published in real life by Hyperion.

CBS has pulled the same stunt. In 2002, “Guiding Light” offered “Lorelei’s Guiding Light: An Intimate Diary,” “which filled in the blanks of a character’s life during a period when she wasn’t with the show,” said Ms. Leahey. In 2006, “As the World Turns” came out with “Oakdale Confidential,” which dealt with the past of a character, Katie Peretti, who was credited on the cover as co-author.

Perhaps Ms. Peretti was a role model for Marcie Walsh, the police department receptionist on ABC’s “One Life to Live,” who two years ago was credited with “The Killing Club,” a best-selling mystery that was published by Hyperion. (The actual author was the soap’s head writer at the time, Michael Malone. Later, a “One Life to Live” character known as Hayes bought a copy of “The Killing Club” on an episode of the show and began bumping off members of the local populace based on methods used in the book.)

Disney-ABC’s collaboration with Hyperion was born of an effort to leverage the popularity of the network’s soap operas and casts. “Fans will create their own fiction about the characters, and we thought, ‘If they want to know more and go deeper, maybe we should do a book,’ ” said Brian Frons, president for the daytime division of the Disney-ABC Television Group. “After we had the success of ‘The Killing Club’ we talked with Hyperion about what show would be next.”

Kendall Hart “is a very aspirational character for women,” Mr. Frons said. “She’d come from a trailer park and had built up a cosmetics company, and we felt that was the stuff of good female fiction.”

Soap operas, of course, were created for the purpose of selling soap, so it is a reliable formula to use them to peddle products. Nowadays, however, instead of the shows’ being written to support the sponsors’ products, the products themselves are offshoots of the story lines.

According to Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly, “Since there seems to be a blurring of lines between fiction and reality on TV, in books, in politics even, it stands to reason that a fictional character could write a book that actually gets published. It strikes me as one of those ideas that’s so bad it’s good.”

That Kendall Hart could whip up a novel and get it published with such dispatch raises no credibility issues with viewers, said Ms. Leahey of Soap Opera Digest. “Soap opera characters come back from the dead and have evil twins,” she noted, “so in that world, it would make sense for someone to write a book in a few weeks.”

Thanks for posting.

100, 000 copies! New York Times Best Seller! Go Lish! :yay

Ummm... Kendall came from a trailer park? I thought that was Babe. I knew that Bill and Alice weren't wealthy but I never thought Kendall was from a trailer park.

And Frons is the biggest dipshit of all time. Does he honestly think we like the character of Kendall Hart because we can all relate? Does he think we all live in a trailer park and we want to aspire to be like her?

Someone really needs to tell this man to STFU. He's sooo offensive.

Frons does have a tendency to insert his foot in his mouth every time he speaks. His attitude about women and women who watch soaps in particular sometimes reminds me of Mel Gibson in that movie, "What Women Want"[without the hotness, ladies man factor of course]. He has no idea what we want.

Even if he'd had lightning strike him so that he'd be forced to hear "what women want" to see on ABC soaps non-stop, 24/7, and all at the same time, I still don't think he'd get it.

I think Frons got Carly and Kendall confused. Carly grew up in a trailer park. At least he got cosmetic company right. I'm surprised he didn't say that Kendall now runs whatever hotel Carly runs on GH. You know it would take him like 20 seconds to double check.

Yeah, the Careys are our trailer park trash characters.

We only would like to be married to Zach!

I'm so glad it's doing well.

I'll tell you one thing Frons got right - if he had to pick any one person on AMC that would make a book sell like hotcakes, it is our fabulous Miss Minshew.

Frons needs to STFU, he suffers from foot in mouth disease, he ALWAYS sticks his foot in it :madashell

Eeee I'm glad Charm! did so well. IMO it was the NAME(Kendall Hart) that sold, more than the book itself, Lish's picture on their definitely had alot to do with it as well.

I remember once reading at Serial Drama, Mallory Harlen said that some lady saw the book and thought the lady on the cover was pretty and was gonna buy the book

Now that's selling power! ;)