Her sons had recently left for college, and she finally succumbed to the urgings of her husband that she try writing a novel.įor more than 20 years, Krantz had worked as an editor and writer at women's magazines. The book, she said, was partly the result of empty-nest syndrome. 'I was the world's latest bloomer!' she told The Boston Globe. Krantz was 50 when 'Scruples' was published. Donald Trump even made a cameo in one production, 'I'll Take Manhattan' (1987), which was set in Trump Tower. So began a fruitful family business: Krantz would publish a book roughly every two years, and a couple of years after that her husband would bring it to the small screen. Produced by Krantz's husband, Steve Krantz, it was the second-highest-rated miniseries of 1980 (first was a show about Jim Jones in Guyana). That same year, a TV miniseries based on 'Scruples' came out, with Lindsay Wagner in the starring role. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list a week before its publication date in 1980. Rights to the paperback edition of that book were sold for $3.2 million, then the highest price ever paid for a fiction reprint. 'Scruples' was rejected by Simon & Schuster, which said the novel - about a woman named Billy Ikehorn who transforms herself from an overweight frump into the svelte, stylish and wealthy proprietor of a Beverly Hills boutique called Scruples - suffered from an excess of characters and plot.Ĭrown swooped in and not only bought the novel for $50,000 but quickly snapped up an outline of Krantz's second novel, 'Princess Daisy,' for $400,000.

'They've done everything but tattoo a 'P' for Pornographer on my chest,' Krantz told People magazine in 1978. They were mildly scandalous in a pre-'Fifty Shades of Grey' world. The books, like those of Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins, helped break taboos about women and sex - and about women writing about sex.

Scruples krantz