High concept or hype concept?
Nov 3rd, 2006 by Sandra
A few days ago, a fellow RWA chapter member posted a movie producer’s take on “high concept.” It was pretty much what we’ve heard before: A one-sentence (or better yet, three-word) rendition of the movie/book/story/whatever. But s/he added on attributes like catchy title, gripping premise, etc.
When I asked on the chapter Yahoo! group whether high concept actually applied to us as writers, two responses came back. Both were essentially about selling — boil the idea down to the bare bones, make sure those bones are catchy, and viola! you’ve got something that our soundbite obsessed society can grasp. One response, from a published author, mentioned the fact that her high concept novels were more easily “sold” internally at her publishing company (e.g., editor to marketing, marketing to sales) and enabled those novels to be released in international markets.
And yet….
I’m of two minds about anything deemed “high concept.” I’ve heard the term mentioned in reverent tones, as if an idea’s being high concept will almost guarantee bestsellerdom and gigantic advances. I’ve also read a couple of high concept books that left me cold.
As Leslie Wainger, venerable editing goddess at Harlequin, used to say: It’s all in the execution.
Can anyone recommend a high concept book that was also a great read?
3 Responses to “High concept or hype concept?”
Harry Potter. Julie Kenner’s Carpe Demon (though I think the follow-up book was even better). Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl is pretty high-concept (Ivy League student gets inducted into previously all-male secret society), as is Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series (sophomore’s high school is really training them to be spies).
High concept is difficult because a lot of people think it’s the DESCRIPTION of the book that’s high concept and you can make anything be so. But that’s not really true. Also, you hit a nail with the subjectivity part–just because something makes someone go “ooooh” with the idea, doesn’t mean it’s worth the “oooh” in the execution.
I love the Harry Potter books! But are they high concept? Or just darn good reading? It almost seems as though they’re “high concept” after the fact, but I frankly wasn’t paying much attention when the first one came out.
I totally get Secret Society Girl and Carpe Demon as high concept books, though I haven’t read them yet.
Thanks for the suggestions and the thoughts, Natalie!
Interesting. I mentioned high concept to Sandra only last
week and now understand her reaction. I’ve been told
that certain high concept notions have sold. I was told by
a magazine publisher in Phoenix that the high concept idea of
..A lawyer is told that he must tell he truth for the next 24 hours before his most important case tomorrow morning…was bought for a few thousand dollars.
I would hope any concepts I develop into stories can’t quite be capsulized in a few words or a sentence.