하이 콘셉트 북: 베스트셀러 전제 조건의 비밀

### 높은 콘셉트의 책 만들기: 출판 성공의 비결
* 📚 하이 콘셉트 도서는 한 문장으로 간결하게 요약할 수 있는 시선을 사로잡는 전제로 정의되며, **독자와 출판사 모두에게 어필**할 수 있습니다.
* 🌍 이러한 이야기는 폭넓은 호소력과 많은 잠재 독자를 보유하고 있어 **더 많은 책을 판매**하고자 하는 문학 에이전트와 출판사를 끌어들이는 데 매우 중요합니다.
* 🧠 흔히 하이 콘셉트 도서에는 캐릭터 개발이 부족하다는 오해가 있지만, 많은 성공 사례는 **강한 캐릭터와 하이 콘셉트 전제**가 공존할 수 있음을 보여줍니다.
* 🔍 하이 콘셉트 스토리를 만들기 위한 프레임워크에는 **익숙한 트로피를 재해석**하고, **대담한 '만약'이라는 질문**을 던지며, **예상치 못한 다양한 장르의 매시업**을 만드는 것이 포함됩니다.
* 🌌 하이컨셉 소설의 예로는 **"침묵의 환자", "화성인", "하녀 이야기"** 등이 있으며, 각 소설은 하이컨셉의 특성을 나타내는 간결한 줄거리 설명이 특징입니다.
* 🔄 인터뷰 형식을 사용한 '데이지 존스와 더 식스'와 같은 작품에서 볼 수 있듯이 **내러티브 구조를 실험**하면 플롯을 높은 개념으로 끌어올릴 수도 있습니다.
* ✍ 콘셉트를 잘 잡는 것도 좋지만, **잘 만들어진 스토리**가 궁극적으로 전제보다 더 큰 공감을 불러일으킬 수 있기 때문에 **실행이 핵심**입니다.
* 📈 소설을 개발하는 사람들에게는 **스토리 자가 평가 워크시트**와 같은 리소스가 글쓰기 과정을 개선하는 데 유용한 통찰력을 제공할 수 있습니다.

하이 콘셉트 책은 간결하고 흥미로운 전제로 독자의 마음을 사로잡습니다.

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

Alyssa Matesic

성공적인 책의 비결: 높은 콘셉트 전제

하이 콘셉트 도서는 한 문장으로 요약할 수 있을 정도로 시선을 사로잡는 전제를 가지고 있어 스스로를 돋보이게 하고 광범위한 독자에게 어필할 수 있습니다.

이러한 책은 높은 판매 가능성으로 인해 문학 에이전트와 출판사에게 매력적입니다.

특정 장르가 하이 콘셉트 전제에 적합할 수도 있지만, 모든 장르에서 성공 사례를 찾을 수 있으며 전통적인 출판에서 하이 콘셉트가 필수적인 것은 아닙니다.

하이 콘셉트 도서는 간결하고 매력적인 줄거리로 베스트셀러가 될 가능성이 높습니다.

예를 들어 "침묵의 환자", "마션", "시녀 이야기"는 각각 독특한 전제를 제공하면서 심오한 주제를 탐구합니다.

컨셉이 뚜렷한 스토리를 만들려면 익숙한 비유를 새롭게 재해석하여 신선한 느낌을 주는 것이 효과적인 기법 중 하나입니다.

높은 콘셉트의 스토리 전제 만들기

우주를 배경으로 한 고전 서부극이나 오만과 편견을 좀비로 변형한 이야기처럼 익숙한 이야기를 새롭게 해석하여 독특한 컨셉의 스토리를 만들 수 있습니다.

현대 세계의 공룡이나 암살을 막기 위한 시간 여행 등 대담한 '만약'이라는 질문을 던지면 흥미를 유발할 수 있습니다.

X와 Y의 공식으로 서로 다른 스토리의 요소를 결합하면 예상치 못한 매력적인 전제를 만들 수도 있습니다.

책을 위한 높은 콘셉트의 전제 만들기

독특한 제목 조합을 사용하면 다른 사람들이 스토리를 개념화하는 데 도움이 될 수 있습니다.

인터뷰나 팟캐스트 녹취록과 같은 내러티브 구조를 실험해 보면 줄거리를 더욱 돋보이게 만들 수 있습니다.

컨셉을 잘 잡는 것도 중요하지만, 소설을 개선하는 데 도움이 되는 추가 자료와 팁을 이용할 수 있습니다.

발표자는 청중의 시청에 감사를 표하고 향후 콘텐츠를 놓치지 않도록 구독을 권유합니다.

청중에게 행복한 글쓰기를 기원하며 음악으로 마무리합니다.