My book is set in a Nigerian context. Is it possible to have two versions of the premise: one that is culturally grasped by Nigerian readers and another that will be generally understood by an international audience?
I loved your post and thought it a very easy and clear explanation. I have not yet been in the situation of having to explain my books to lots of people and I look forward to it. My latest effort is an origin story of a reclusive order that trains lethal female assassins so good that no one sees them coming or going. They are used to keep a corrupt system in balance when there is no other way.
Too exciting to pass up. “A soldier, who struggles with crippling guilt for his role in a war, must fight a demon who forces him to choose between preventing the genocide of his enemies and sacrificing his adopted son.”
Heh. So it appears that my soon-to-be self-published fantasy is…high concept. Maybe.
Deposing the Big Bad Emperor is good…except for the messes he leaves behind. The new Empress struggles to fix the land’s broken magic, but political problems and meddling Gods add more complications…and time is running out for a solution.
This is so helpful as I embark on pitching a first novel and beginning to write a second. I kept hearing this term but had no idea what it meant. So is “high concept premise” a sophisticated way of saying it’s “catchy” or has a “good hook”?
Another masterpiece in publishing. Thanks, Devon! This is so valuable, including for passing on to students, as I just did to my Randolph College CW students on my writer-in-residence visit!
Devon, I remember the earlier version of this article and what a fun idea the GPS dog mystery would be - I really don't think it sounds all that dreadful 😂
In our pitch and/or query letter, should we state that our novel is 'high-concept' or leave that out?
If I may, here's my pitch, which I fear might be a tad lengthy. What do I know, but I hope it's already high concept enough:
"A Matter of Write and Death: The Teacher Who Shouldn’t Finish His Book is about a debt-ridden international school language teacher told by his mischievous doctor that finishing his book will kill him, while his foul-mouthed, sarcastic but wildly popular hypochondriac colleague races to finish his own book, in a darkly comic psychological novel about fractured identity, desperation, and the stories we tell to survive."
Hi Daniel! No need to state that your novel is high-concept--hopefully, the pitch alone will make that clear, and if it doesn't, insisting that the novel is high-concept won't persuade anyone.
When I read your pitch, my first question is: will finishing his book *actually* kill him? The doctor is described as mischievous, so probably not... but wouldn't the stakes be higher if that were actually true? So I see the high-concept premise here as: "Finishing his book will kill him. Unfortunately, it's also killing him to watch his hated colleague race to finish their own book."
One good sign of a high-concept premise is that you can easily paraphrase it into a short, glitter-free sentence. (Glitter-free meaning not too many adverbs or adjectives.) See if you can boil your concept down to just the idea, without the sales pitch language in there!
The challenge I'm finding in both my pitch and query letter is that I don't want to reveal the big twist - and I'm sharing this here because I doubt anyone who's been reading my serialised novel will notice - which is that the teacher and his colleague are in fact the same person. The opening line of the book is ‘What do you mean, I’m going to die if I finish my book?'. It's a parallel timeline structure that comes together neatly by the end, and once the twist becomes clear around 2/3-3/4 of the way through, the mystery then becomes how this happened. The obvious comp is Fight Club (which in itself is a spoiler so...I'm not sure I should use that).
Thank you Devon for this post. I've read other articles about what's "high concept", and finally this is what made sense to me because I need to be able to imagine it visually:
"This is the predicament that your agent and publisher will be in: endlessly pitching your book to people who can only give a minute or two of attention. When a book comes across their desk with a premise so clear, so self-explanatory, that it practically pitches itself, they flash ahead to all those meetings with relief."
I'm trying to look objectively at what I'd do at a literary event where I talk to other writers/industry professionals. I think this could be high concept, but maybe I'm too close to it to see it if it's not. Everyone else reading, feel free to chime in. :)
"The White Millennial Women Book Club is what happens when three women and a Gen-X Asian guy form a cheeky book club as a cover to fight their toxic bosses. Their secret rebellion sparks an unexpected romance, big career leaps, and a moonshot at Hollywood success."
Hi Tim! This sounds like a fun book, but it doesn't necessarily sound high-concept to me. Here's why: after reading your pitch, I have a lot of follow-up questions. How does the book club help them fight their toxic bosses? Do they actually discuss books, or is that just a cover? How do they rebel? Who gets the moonshot, the romance, the big career leap?
You might have a high-concept premise in here, but I can't see it from the pitch. Here's how I would reframe it to get at the idea alone:
"Four mistreated employees form a work-sanctioned book club--but it's just a cover. Really, they're plotting the downfall of their bosses, [method goes here]."
I think we need to know something about *how* the book club relates to the fight with the bosses. Otherwise, the central conflict is too straightforward: the employees form a rebellious book club, and everything goes well from there. What's stopping them? What's getting in their way?
Thank you and I see where you're coming from. :) I was trying to keep it short in terms of pitch length. An example you quoted of high concept in this substack was only 41 words.
"A woman falls asleep next to her fiancé and wakes up five years later, in bed with a different man. When she returns to the present, she has to decide what to do, now that she knows what the future holds."
^^ there's no "how" mentioned. And I personally have many followup questions about this premise. But I immediately clocked "OK, this is a time travel life-fic love story, possibly magical realism."
What your feedback made it clear to me is that I'm not going in pitching this as a high-concept project. I'll have to find another angle that still makes it sound fun but without overpromising, and in <50 words. Thanks again. :)
I've worked as a bookseller/buyer for years and still found this wildly illuminating! Helps explain the bidding war around Florence Knapp's THE NAMES. Thanks for sharing!
Fascinating and so helpful to all writers, emerging and experienced. 💖
My book is set in a Nigerian context. Is it possible to have two versions of the premise: one that is culturally grasped by Nigerian readers and another that will be generally understood by an international audience?
Love the deep dive! So many of these terms are thrown around so it’s nice to read in depth about what they really mean at hear. Thanks!
I loved your post and thought it a very easy and clear explanation. I have not yet been in the situation of having to explain my books to lots of people and I look forward to it. My latest effort is an origin story of a reclusive order that trains lethal female assassins so good that no one sees them coming or going. They are used to keep a corrupt system in balance when there is no other way.
So illuminating. Going to give this a shot:
An A24-esque gothic horror about four women attending an artists retreat in a monstrous house where the true horror is living in a female body.
Too exciting to pass up. “A soldier, who struggles with crippling guilt for his role in a war, must fight a demon who forces him to choose between preventing the genocide of his enemies and sacrificing his adopted son.”
Gah—that sounds so stupid when written like that!
Heh. So it appears that my soon-to-be self-published fantasy is…high concept. Maybe.
Deposing the Big Bad Emperor is good…except for the messes he leaves behind. The new Empress struggles to fix the land’s broken magic, but political problems and meddling Gods add more complications…and time is running out for a solution.
This is so helpful as I embark on pitching a first novel and beginning to write a second. I kept hearing this term but had no idea what it meant. So is “high concept premise” a sophisticated way of saying it’s “catchy” or has a “good hook”?
Yes, exactly! It's just another term for a good hook.
Another masterpiece in publishing. Thanks, Devon! This is so valuable, including for passing on to students, as I just did to my Randolph College CW students on my writer-in-residence visit!
This is great
Devon, I remember the earlier version of this article and what a fun idea the GPS dog mystery would be - I really don't think it sounds all that dreadful 😂
In our pitch and/or query letter, should we state that our novel is 'high-concept' or leave that out?
If I may, here's my pitch, which I fear might be a tad lengthy. What do I know, but I hope it's already high concept enough:
"A Matter of Write and Death: The Teacher Who Shouldn’t Finish His Book is about a debt-ridden international school language teacher told by his mischievous doctor that finishing his book will kill him, while his foul-mouthed, sarcastic but wildly popular hypochondriac colleague races to finish his own book, in a darkly comic psychological novel about fractured identity, desperation, and the stories we tell to survive."
Hi Daniel! No need to state that your novel is high-concept--hopefully, the pitch alone will make that clear, and if it doesn't, insisting that the novel is high-concept won't persuade anyone.
When I read your pitch, my first question is: will finishing his book *actually* kill him? The doctor is described as mischievous, so probably not... but wouldn't the stakes be higher if that were actually true? So I see the high-concept premise here as: "Finishing his book will kill him. Unfortunately, it's also killing him to watch his hated colleague race to finish their own book."
One good sign of a high-concept premise is that you can easily paraphrase it into a short, glitter-free sentence. (Glitter-free meaning not too many adverbs or adjectives.) See if you can boil your concept down to just the idea, without the sales pitch language in there!
Thank you Devin, this is helpful!
The challenge I'm finding in both my pitch and query letter is that I don't want to reveal the big twist - and I'm sharing this here because I doubt anyone who's been reading my serialised novel will notice - which is that the teacher and his colleague are in fact the same person. The opening line of the book is ‘What do you mean, I’m going to die if I finish my book?'. It's a parallel timeline structure that comes together neatly by the end, and once the twist becomes clear around 2/3-3/4 of the way through, the mystery then becomes how this happened. The obvious comp is Fight Club (which in itself is a spoiler so...I'm not sure I should use that).
Thank you Devon for this post. I've read other articles about what's "high concept", and finally this is what made sense to me because I need to be able to imagine it visually:
"This is the predicament that your agent and publisher will be in: endlessly pitching your book to people who can only give a minute or two of attention. When a book comes across their desk with a premise so clear, so self-explanatory, that it practically pitches itself, they flash ahead to all those meetings with relief."
I'm trying to look objectively at what I'd do at a literary event where I talk to other writers/industry professionals. I think this could be high concept, but maybe I'm too close to it to see it if it's not. Everyone else reading, feel free to chime in. :)
"The White Millennial Women Book Club is what happens when three women and a Gen-X Asian guy form a cheeky book club as a cover to fight their toxic bosses. Their secret rebellion sparks an unexpected romance, big career leaps, and a moonshot at Hollywood success."
Hi Tim! This sounds like a fun book, but it doesn't necessarily sound high-concept to me. Here's why: after reading your pitch, I have a lot of follow-up questions. How does the book club help them fight their toxic bosses? Do they actually discuss books, or is that just a cover? How do they rebel? Who gets the moonshot, the romance, the big career leap?
You might have a high-concept premise in here, but I can't see it from the pitch. Here's how I would reframe it to get at the idea alone:
"Four mistreated employees form a work-sanctioned book club--but it's just a cover. Really, they're plotting the downfall of their bosses, [method goes here]."
I think we need to know something about *how* the book club relates to the fight with the bosses. Otherwise, the central conflict is too straightforward: the employees form a rebellious book club, and everything goes well from there. What's stopping them? What's getting in their way?
Thank you and I see where you're coming from. :) I was trying to keep it short in terms of pitch length. An example you quoted of high concept in this substack was only 41 words.
"A woman falls asleep next to her fiancé and wakes up five years later, in bed with a different man. When she returns to the present, she has to decide what to do, now that she knows what the future holds."
^^ there's no "how" mentioned. And I personally have many followup questions about this premise. But I immediately clocked "OK, this is a time travel life-fic love story, possibly magical realism."
What your feedback made it clear to me is that I'm not going in pitching this as a high-concept project. I'll have to find another angle that still makes it sound fun but without overpromising, and in <50 words. Thanks again. :)
I've worked as a bookseller/buyer for years and still found this wildly illuminating! Helps explain the bidding war around Florence Knapp's THE NAMES. Thanks for sharing!
this was super insightful!!
Thank you, Devon. This is the best description of ‘high concept’ I’ve read. Now I finally feel like I understand the term!