Her debut novel, "The Flame and the Flower", was rejected by agents and hardcover publishers as being too long at 600 pages. Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, Woodiwiss instead submitted it to paperback publishers. The first publisher on her list, Avon, quickly purchased the novel. Editor Nancy Coffey provided a $1500 advance and arranged for an initial 500,000 print run. "The Flame and the Flower" was revolutionary, featuring an epic historical romance with a strong heroine and actual sex scenes. This novel, published in 1972, sold over 2.3 million copies in its first four years of publication and is credited with spawning the modern romance genre, becoming the first romance novel "to the principals into the bedroom." The success of this novel prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationships between helpless heroines and the heroes who rescued them, even if they had been the ones to place them in danger. The romance novels which followed in her example featured longer plots, more controversial situations and characters, and more intimate and steamy sex scenes.