What made all of these wildly popular books so successful? It's not the genre, not the writing, not even the author. In the publishing industry, this Secret Sauce is known as a high concept premise. But what does high concept mean, and how can you make your book high concept? I'm going to walk through what sets a high concept book apart from the rest and give you a framework to craft a high concept premise that makes your book sell itself. Make sure you stick all the way through to the end so you don't miss out on your next great story idea. First, let's talk definitions. What is a high concept book? These stories have an attention-grabbing premise that can be summarized succinctly in a single sentence. Because the plot is so easy to grasp, these books essentially pitch themselves and immediately make someone want to pick it up. High concept books tend to have a broad appeal and a large potential audience, which is what makes them so attractive to literary agents and publishers who, of course, want to sell the most books they possibly can.

there's a common misconception that high-concept books tend to focus more on action-driven stories or plot-driven stories that don't have as much character development. This is not necessarily true, and there are many examples of high-concept novels that also feature strong character development. Now, there are certain genres that might lend themselves more naturally to a high-concept premise, such as thrillers or sci-fi, but you can have a high-concept book across any genre. At the same time, also know that it is not essential for you to have a quote-unquote high-concept book to get traditionally published. Literary fiction, for example, tends to be a genre that is quieter on plot and more focused on thoughtful prose. These novels may or may not have a high-concept premise but can still be executed in such a way that makes them extremely successful stories. You will see the term high concept listed in many literary agents' and editors' manuscript wish lists, but know that even if your book is high concept, the pitch alone is not enough to sell it.

It also has to be executed extremely well. Let's go through a few examples of high-concept books that also have a very high level of execution that allowed them to reach bestseller status. The basic plot of all of these books can be described succinctly in a single sentence, which is what signals that they are high-concept. First, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: a woman brutally murders her husband but refuses to talk. Another example is The Martian by Andy Weir, where a stranded astronaut must use his ingenuity and survival skills to survive on Mars while awaiting rescue. Another example would be The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, where the United States becomes a totalitarian society amid a fertility crisis, and women are forced into sexual servitude. Just because each of these books has a high-concept premise doesn't mean they aren't meaty in terms of the themes that they explore. For instance, The Handmaid's Tale, in particular, explores a lot of issues related to gender, patriarchy, power and control, politics, and religion. Note too

that these examples come from different genres, including suspense, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. Though you will find high-concept plots in genres other than these. So now that we know what a high-concept book is, how do you come up with a high-concept story idea? Or how can you tell if the book you've already written is high-concept? Before we get into all of that, if you're liking this video so far, give me a thumbs up. It really helps out my channel. And if you haven't yet subscribed, hit that subscribe button to join our amazing community of authors. Every week, in addition to writing tips, I also offer deep dives into the publishing industry from my experiences as a developmental book editor. Now let's walk through four proven techniques to craft a high-concept premise. Number one is to re-imagine a familiar trope. Many high-concept books take a familiar storyline or trope that readers are already familiar with in our literary canon and twist it or turn it on its head in some way. This strategy works so well because we will immediately already

understand the foundation of the type of story you're telling and be excited for the fresh spin you are going to take with it. This makes it at once familiar but also completely original. For example, for a classic Western set in space, look at Star Wars. For Pride and Prejudice but with zombies, look at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. You can immediately conceptualize what this story will be and how it will play on those familiar storylines. The next approach to craft a high-concept premise is to ask what if. Try asking big, bold questions that challenge the reality we find ourselves in. These will immediately create a sense of intrigue for the reader to want to see how that might play out in your story. These questions could be super broad and far-reaching, or they could be super specific, narrowing in on a human experience that few people have or know about. For instance, what if dinosaurs existed in the modern world? That's Jurassic Park. What if you could travel back in time and prevent the JFK assassination? That's 11/22/63 by Stephen King. What if two

teenagers with cancer fell in love. That's the Fault in Our Stars. These questions are guaranteed to make your story immediately intriguing. The third way to craft a high-concept premise is to create an unexpected mashup. High-concept books can often be described in the X meets Y formula, where you put together two unexpected and wildly different stories. Here's a fun exercise you can use to come up with some high-concept story ideas. Make a list of some of your favorite stories, whether they're novels, TV shows, or movies. Ideally, they would be in different genres. Then write down what you love most from each of those titles. For instance, that could be the setting, the characters, or a specific part of the plot. Now try mixing and matching those different elements. What if you took the characters from title A and put them in the setting of title B? Here are some examples of the X meets Y premise in action. The novel Before I Fall could be described as Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls, and the novel Cinder could be described as Cinderella meets The Terminator.

would never think initially of those titles going together, but then once you put them together in your mind, you immediately have a sense of what that story is. Remember that the titles you use don't have to fall into the perfect criteria for a comp title, which we often talk about in query letters. They don't necessarily have to be in the genre you're writing in or the format you're writing in. They don't even need to have been published in the past 5 years like comp titles should. The idea is for these titles to help the agent, reader, or publisher immediately conceptualize the story you have crafted. The final technique for crafting a high-concept premise is to experiment with structure. Employing a unique narrative structure or method of storytelling can take what feels like a normal plot and instantly make it high concept. The unique structure on the page is what makes this book stand out from others in the genre. For example, Daisy Jones and The Six takes a unique interview structure that makes the story feel like a documentary.

and the novel Sad is a mystery told in the format of a podcast transcript. Now that you know the secret sauce to making an agent, reader, or publisher immediately want to pick up your book, drop me a comment letting me know your high-concept pitch for your book. As I said before, though, a pitch alone will not sell your book. So, if you're in the process of developing your novel, I have a free resource for you waiting in the description below. It's a story self-assessment worksheet. It's a quiz I designed to help you understand what's working well in your current draft and how you can improve it and take it to the next level. Downloading that is going to opt you into my free newsletter, Chapter Break, where I'm dishing out interviews with literary agents and bestselling novelists. They're giving amazing tips. I don't want you to miss out on the link to check out Chapter Break is also in the description. Before you head out, if you like this video, give me a thumbs up to let me know and don't

forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on my next one. Thanks so much for watching, and happy writing. [Music]

The Proven Formula That Makes a Story Irresistible

The Proven Formula That Makes a Story Irresistible