{alltv} Pouf! 'Jersey Shore' star Snooki has become an author

NEW YORK — Meet Snooki, the novelist.

The pint-sized, curvaceous breakout star of MTV's hit reality show Jersey Shore arrives at her publisher's office at Rockefeller Center decked out in stiletto booties and wearing a business suit — albeit one with a skirt that's short and tight. A bit of leopard print peeks out from underneath her tiny jacket.

Yes, Snooki — with the help of a collaborator — has written a book. The outspoken, raven-haired New York native who became famous for causing a ruckus on TV is now an author, and she's hoping to score some big sales with the release Tuesday of her debut novel, A Shore Thing (Gallery Books, $24).

The timing is no accident: Jersey Shore returns for its third season Thursday (10 p.m. ET/PT).

Love her or hate her, there's just something about Snooki. She has been spoofed on South Park, was literally placed inside a ball dropped at midnight in a pre-taped New Year's Eve stunt by MTV, and, with a Twitter following that recently hit 1 million, has secured a hot spot in popular culture. Dressing up as Snooki was a popular Halloween costume last year.

"She's sort of like a lovable cartoon," says Peter Castro, deputy managing editor of People magazine. "She's beyond a reality star. People really believe she's living the life she's portraying on the show. And when you're a reality star, the cardinal sin you can never commit is giving the impression you are faking it. But those personalities (on Jersey Shore) really shine through, and Snooki's leading the charge."

And now, like Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Stephen King, she's a published author. This from the girl who once said she's read only two books in her life: Twilight and Dear John.

Holding the finished product in her hand for the first time, Snooki, 23, surveys her book's jacket, emblazoned with her famous "pouf" hairdo.

"I would buy it if I weren't me," she declares approvingly. "People know me for the pouf. I just wanted it to be all Snooki, and it is," she says. "I love it."

It's a jacket befitting the story line, a fictionalized account of two girls' naughty summertime adventures at — where else? — the Jersey Shore. Two girls reminiscent of Snooki and her Shore BFF and partner in crime, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, that is.

"Exactly!" says Snooki, pleased to hear someone point out the obvious similarities.

Anyone who has seen even a snippet of Shore has had a taste of the outrageous real-life material she had to draw upon. "The events that happened in the book, it's not exactly what happened to me, but it could happen to me, and that's the funny part about it," she says.

Picking the names for main characters was easy, she says. "They're the names of what I want to name my kids: Isabella, Gia, Frankie, Joey." Writing involved a back-and-forth process by phone with her collaborator, Valerie Frankel.

"It was really hard because while this was in progress, I was filming Season 3," explains Snooki, whose real name is Nicole Polizzi. "I just gave her scenarios, (a character) possibly working at a tanning salon, there has to be drama in it, fights. She would write it up, I would read it, and if I didn't like it, I would change things, and then she would fix it for me."

Louise Burke, executive vice president and publisher of Gallery Books, hopes lots of readers are up for some literary Snooki escapism. "I think many people thought she'd have 15 minutes of fame, but she's enduring, and because of that, she makes perfect sense for a book," Burke says.

Finding an audience for A Shore Thing shouldn't be a problem, says Kathryn Popoff, vice president of merchandising for Borders' trade books division. "We have a good track record with items, not just books, from the Jersey Shore property selling well. This lifestyle is very different from anything we've seen, and people love their personalities," she says. "And the timing on this is terrific — they're about to start Season 3 two days after the book comes out."

Riding the wave

Snooki's rise to reality stardom was rapid, thanks in part to the hard-partying ways that seem to come naturally to the Shore cast. Viewers couldn't resist the colorful — and often crass — group that first took up residence in the summer of 2009 in a Seaside Heights, N.J., shore house. Following a controversial self-proclaimed "guido/guidette" lifestyle, both the men (including Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino) and women flaunted their casual sexual exploits, hooked up with one another, hit the clubs and drank themselves into escalating states of intoxication. They were so popular, MTV decided to make snowbirds of the cast and sent them to film a second season in sunny Miami last winter.

The first season's finale drew 4.8 million viewers, and the audience grew from there, peaking at 6.5 million during Season 2. Hopes are high for the third season, which People's Castro says he's eagerly anticipating, "even though I'm embarrassed to admit it. It is downright shameful."

But, as Snooki points out, it all might never have happened. She almost left the show's first season after a night of wild behavior prodded by heavy drinking left her roommates with a particularly embarrassing first impression.

Good thing she didn't leave, otherwise "there would be no Season 2, probably," she says, before quickly adding, "just kidding."

She met her current boyfriend of three months, Jionni LaValle, while filming the new season. "I have fun with him," she says, smiling. "I'm very thankful that I found a legit guy."

This season also features her infamous headline-making arrest while filming back in Seaside Heights last summer.

Says Snooki with a quick giggle: "I learned my lesson, and now I know to not to go so overboard and not start drinking at 12 o'clock in the afternoon."

Season 3 also marks the introduction of a new castmate, Deena,a pal of Snooki's and a kindred party spirit. "We needed Deena to get the house back in party mode," Snooki says.

Like many other reality show success stories, Snooki has cashed in on her fame. In addition to the book, there have been endorsement deals for pistachios and a cookie-based weight-loss diet, a Snooki line of slippers, and "hopefully, I'll have a couple of other lines out this spring. I'd like to work on some jewelry and sunglasses," she says.

Want Snooki to come to your party? It'll cost you upward of $20,000, but she'll be there, ready to fist pump.

Situating herself in front of a video camera, Snooki fires off snappy answers to a reporter's questions, smiling wide for the camera, visibly pleased with herself. In person, there is a sweetness and vulnerability that shines through the sass. It's just that there's so much more of the latter.

Asked if she wants to freshen up before a photo shoot, she replies, "Why? Do I not look good?" There's also no pouf in sight. "I feel like I've outdone the pouf. I've been doing it since I was 16, and I'm almost gonna be 24. I feel like I need to do something else with my hair. I'm still going to rock the pouf sometimes, but it's not going to be every day like I used to do."

She's ready for her close-up, and with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind playing in the background, Snooki works what she's got.

"Do I get to pick my own photo?" she asks the photographer. When told no, that an editor will make the choice, Snooki responds, "What's his number? Let me call him."

Snooki loves attention, and nowhere is that more evident than watching her flip through poses and blow kisses at the camera. When asked how tall she is, she deadpans, "Six feet." (She's 4-foot-9.)

A spur-of-the-moment choice

It's that confidence and no-holds-barred attitude that's gotten her to where she is today.

Before she heard about auditions for Shore, she was going to school to become a veterinary technician. "I was struggling to find a job. I was going to every tanning salon trying to get a position, but nobody was hiring," she says. "I was living on like $5 a week. I was like, 'Dad, I need money, I want to go to the bar.' Just a normal college student."

A bad breakup left her brokenhearted and inspired her to "do something spontaneous, something crazy. I was in Jersey. I found out through Facebook they were auditioning (for Shore) down the block at a bar. So I went, I tried out, and now I'm here."

(Cast members are making around $30,000 an episode for the new season, according to The New York Post.)

Born in Chile and adopted when she was 6 months old, Snooki was raised an only child in Marlboro, N.Y. Her parents are divorced, and while she is very close to her firefighter father, she still lives at home with her mother, who works in an orthopedic office.

"Yeah, unfortunately," she says, laughing. "I mean, I'm never home, so it's pointless to buy a place when I'm never there." There are plans, however, to get a place with Farley, "probably Long Island or Jersey."

But for now, Snooki says she's working toward building her brand. She wants to be seen as a businesswoman, not just as a party girl.

Plus, reality TV is still calling. "I hope there will be a couple more seasons, because I know we're not done yet," she says. (A fourth Jersey Shore season has not yet been negotiated.)

If the tide comes in on Shore, she hopes to get a spinoff, plus she wants to try acting. "Definitely comedy, because it's like second nature to me."

And were a spot to open up on another of her favorite reality shows, Bravo's Real Housewives franchise, would a someday-married-with-children Snooki be up for it?

"Hell, yeah," she says. "I'll be the one flipping the table."