After ‘Office’ Hours, Mindy Kaling Writes a Book

Mindy KalingByron Cohen/NBC Mindy Kaling on “The Office.”

On “The Office,” the bubbly Kelly Kapoor does not seem capable of writing much more than her name (with smiley faces in the o’s). In real life, Mindy Kaling, the actress and writer who portrays her on that NBC comedy, is much more prolific: her work as an author includes the play “Matt & Ben” (written with Brenda Withers), numerous episodes of “The Office” and a prodigious amount of blog posts and tweets. And soon, a book.

The Crown Publishing Group said on Thursday that it had acquired a book from Ms. Kaling called “The Contents of My Purse,” planned for a fall 2011 release, which the publisher described as a cross between “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” and Ms. Kaling’s blog, Things I’ve Bought That I Love.

But in a telephone interview Ms. Kaling indicated she might have other plans. “What they bought was a funny book of comedy essays,” she said, “but maybe I’ll just turn it into a Jon Krakauer piece about murder in Siberia and perilous adventure to find details about that. I don’t want to be boxed in.”

Assuming she does stick to the original plan, Ms. Kaling said the book would probably be “stories about my life and my opinions.”

“But,” she continued, “I have such a rich fantasy life, I can’t help it. I do make up a lot of romantic stories in my head. I bet that will be in the book. Who knows? I could turn in a pulpy detective novel. The way that I think things work is that they don’t really check in with you until you turn something in.”

Either way, she said: “I’ve already spent the money that I sold it for. I’m really under the gun here to produce something.”

Pressed for details about the current season of “The Office,” and whether future episodes might resolve the tempestuous romance between Kelly and Ryan (B. J. Novak), Ms. Kaling insisted that viewers didn’t really care about her character’s arc.

“Are they really looking to see what’s happening to Kelly next?” she said. “Unlike Jim and Pam, who are growing and having children and becoming adults, Kelly’s more like a ‘Simpsons’ character, in that she resets herself every time you turn on the show. Which I think is good — not everyone can grow and mature and become interesting adults. It’s good to have a 30-year-old woman who acts like a 14-year-old.”

“The Contents of My Purse” was acquired by Suzanne O’Neill, senior editor of Crown Publishing Group. Ms. Kaling is represented by Richard Abate and Howard Klein of 3 Arts Entertainment. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.