After finding current cookbooks less than helpful, Terhune followed her friends' advice and began collecting her own tested recipes, which she wrote in a more accessible manner. Although friends were concerned when she decided to publish a cookbook, in 1872 Terhune began soliciting publishers for her "Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery", a work gathering recipes and housekeeping tips. Her regular publisher, Carleton, turned down the work, as did other publishers. Eventually, Charles Scribner agreed to publish it in 1872, with little expectation but the hope that she would choose his house to publish her next novel. The work quickly began a best seller, going through ten printings in less than a year, and earning Terhune more than $30,000 in royalties. It was reprinted in French, Spanish, German, and Arabic. During its first ten years, it sold 100,000 copies, and according to a 1920 article in "Ladies Home Journal", it eventually sold more than one million.