Readers were livid when they found out JT LeRoy wasn't the androdgynous figure behind the books on drugs and whores. But more than 100,000 haven't seemed to care that Charm!, a book supposedly penned by Kendall Hart, is not, in fact, written by that author.

Because Kendall doesn't exist. And they know it! (Or, hopefully they do.)

Kendall is a character on ABC soap All My Children, and the book she wrote began for her, or her character, as a soothing distraction from the over-dramatic life in Pine Valley, Pa., a town that also doesn't exist. Two months after Alicia Minshew's character began writing the book, it was available on store shelves. A fragrance of the same name goes on sale next week. And the book's publisher, Hyperion (like ABC, owned by Disney), scored walk-on parts for executive editor Gretchen Young and publicity director Beth Gebhard.

This isn't the first example of a fictional storyline finding roots in the real world. And at least the formula makes historic sense; soap operas were born, after all, to sell soap. Today it just so happens that they're around to move copies of Soap Opera Digest and, of course Charm!. They'll have a branded credit card soon enough.