I've been struggling with the hook or high concept for my YA novel for the past few days. High concept is something that I've had a really hard time wrapping my mind around. I always thought you come up with a plot or characters and then you write the book. But lately, everything is the high concept or the pitch. Being able to distill your storyline into 5 lines or less.
Nearly Famous was the first book that I've written that has a high concept. Now before I write, I ask myself, what is the hook with this book? What would make a publisher or an agent want to read this book beyond just being well-written and have interesting characters. How are they going to be able to sell it?
Recently, I came across a great article on what is a high concept, written by Diana Peterfreund over at the Knight Agency blog. You can find it here. Along with Diana's article, the Knight agency blog has some really interesting articles by several of the clients of the agency including Gena Showalter and Shelley Bradley. Check it out!
So the question of the day is: Who else has struggled with the idea of high concept?
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