When celebrities write novels--yech!

Intoxibellas sound like attendees of a combined finishing school/rehab center. Not quite. "Intoxibellas are drop-dead gorgeous, kick-butt fierce and, yeah, maybe they have some powers, too," TyTy wrote on her website. She hints that some of the characters are based on real people in her life. In case you were wondering, Banks' core mission is "expanding the definitions of beauty," which apparently motivated her to add "novelist" to her resumé.

Books by celebrities are nothing new. Usually stars write memoirs or self-help books in which they promise to tell all and help you get inner lives just like theirs. Just out is Kate Gosselin’s I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith and Family, because nothing says, "I love you," than subjecting their lives to a reality show and letting them know in a hardcover. The book, which came out in April and ranks 1,817 on Amazon (as of this writing), promises to show the 9.8 million viewers of her reality series, Jon & Kate Plus Eight, a side they've not seen in 100 episodes: her heart. No kidding. It says that right there on the back cover.

After you're done checking out Kate’s spiritual side, you'll be ready for Rinnavation: Getting Your Best Life Ever, by soap opera star Lisa Rinna, who admits to a lifetime habit of reading self-help books and has decided to add her own to the pile. Her book recently was released in paperback. "Rinnavation," Rinna writes, means looking your best, feeling your best and doing your best. Think Stuart Smalley, the Saturday Night Live character who hosts a show called Daily Affirmations and was played by now Senator Al Franken.

But some celebrities are not satisfied with merely writing such tried and true-ish books. They want to expand their reach and really make stuff up. More stars like Banks and Rinna feel they have a novel in them. Of course, they're writing about what they know—the lives of actors or models. Whether they themselves are actually doing the writing or have the time to write given their numerous other commitments is something only their publisher, agent and ghostwriter know for sure. Whoever is doing the writing, celebrity novels seem to be popping up at greater frequency.

In February, Lauren Conrad, star of MTV's The Hills, followed up her debut young adult book and New York Times bestseller, L.A. Candy, with Sweet Little Lies: An L.A. Candy Story. The story opens with its main character sipping margaritas on a beach in Mexico, where she has gone to escape her disastrous love life and the paparazzi. Poor thing. The book now ranks 840 on Amazon.

The following month, Sharon Osbourne’s novel, Revenge, was published. Plot? Two sisters who ache for world fame, but one of them won't let anything get in the way of her ambition. Yawn.

Rinna's roman-a-clef about life in Hollywood, Starlit, hits bookstores in September. Read her aforementioned self-help book to get the drift.

No longer content with being a singer-actress-perfumemonger-clothing designer, Hilary Duff is writing a young adult novel. Elixir, due out in October, takes readers on a journey to Brazil with a young photojournalist who is searching for her father, who has disappeared—mysteriously, of course.

TyTy’s novel comes out next summer and we’ll see then how that fits into her core mission.

Meantime, you can bet there will be more celebrity novels in the pipeline. And, unlike books by Richard Ford and other novelists, I'm most definitely not anticipating any of the celebrity novels.