When Sharon Boorstin began shopping her first novel, Cooking for Love, there was general enthusiasm among publishers for the
content (Beverly Hills cookbook author accompanies best friend on exotic journey to find the man who got away)-and general agreement
about the characters: They were too, uh, too... What's the word we're groping for here? Too old. After all, they were
49.
"I was told things like, 'Who would believe women that age would go ff and have these adventures?'" says Boorstin of the novel, which,
in fact, was inspired by a real-life escapade involving a close friend, her long-lost boyfriend, Google, and the female-arousal oil
Zestra®. "But I saw it specifically as a story of that almost-50 age group. For me, the fun was that they were this old,
that
they were at an age where you're wondering if you'll still be able to have adventures."
Consequently, Boorstin, also author of the memoir/cookbook Let Us Eat Cake, decided to embark on a little adventure of her own:
self-publishing. Trawling the Internet, she discovered iUniverse, a print-on-demand operation. The tab for turning her
manuscript into a book that could be ordered online was $600. Then Boorstin got busy putting her mouth where her money was, speaking
mostly to women's groups around the country. She also e-mailed all the women who'd contacted her after the publication of Cake:
"I told them that I had this new book, that no one would publish it because the women were too old, and thy'd write back and say, 'The
women were too what?' It becomes a rallying cry."
Boorstin sold enough paperback copies online, at $18 a pop, to push Cooking for Love into the top 25 at BN.com (Barnes & Noble).
Her success attracted the interest of iUniverse Star, a unit of the Web site, which is marking its relaunch this month as a traditional
publisher by reissuing the book with some racy new recipes (Orgasmic Cookies and Morning-After Muffins, for example) and a slightly
jauntier title: Cookin' for Love. Zestra®, too, has gotten into the act, sponsoring a series of "Girlfriends Gatherings"
this
summer, where Boorstin will discuss the book and participants will get free samples.
"The thing I'm trying to say in the book is that the older you get, the more important your women friends are," says Boorstin. "It's
your friends who make it easier to get through whatever problems you have. As the years go by, the waters get choppier, and sometimes
there are sharks. Your friends are there to make sure you don't get eaten."
Download the PDF version.
