Mini Lesson: 3 things that Make a High Concept HOOK

For Heated Rivalry fans...

I saw this book deal announcement today, and thought it would be a good mini-lesson on what a high concept book (or high concept HOOK) looks like. And more importantly, how you can build one to sell your own manuscripts for more money.

“High concept” is one of those words that gets used in such inconsistent ways—even by publishing professionals!—that we all end up confused about what one IS, much less how to create one. And yet, it is the single most important factor to getting a book deal, or signing with an agent. Yup, I said it, even more crucial than the writing itself.

Not long ago, I dug through all the contradictory and conflicting definitions of “high-concept” to find some common ground between them, and one of the first things I found was this:

1. High concept hooks all contain a combination of NOVELTY and FAMILIARITY

Now, that novelty + familiarity can come in many forms.

1. Comp titles

2. Tropes

3. Setting

4. Character types

5. Really anything!

In this book deal announcement, you see the familiarity coming through in mostly comp titles and tropes. These are things we already know people like, delivered in a new and fresh way. Comp Titles: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Heated Rivalry. Tropes: enemies to lovers, fake dating, hockey romance.

The novelty part comes from adding a twist to the familiar bit, because nobody likes a copycat.

For instance, combining two bestselling things in a unique way (exactly what this author did with linking the characters and relationship setup of Heated Rivalry with the plot of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days). You can also add that twist by flipping a familiar element in a new way. So Heated Rivalry, but make it rival OnlyFans creators instead of hockey players. Or gender-swapping it: Heated Rivalry but make it sapphic (hello, real life wives Team USA’s Meghan Duggan and Canada’s Gillian Apps).

So what else made this hook sell so fast Macmillan had to pre-empt it to avoid an auction?

2. High concept hooks LINK to something hot in the current cultural zeitgeist

It can be Taylor Swift! It can be Pokemon. It can be a recent rise in feminism or consciousness about racial equality. It doesn’t have to be a comp title, or even a book or film or product for sale. It can be anything that people are talking about right now. Now take it, and weave it into your book pitch.

In this case, we see some overlap between principles because the thing everyone is talking about right now is Heated Rivalry, but it also functions as one of the comp titles.

The author used the dynamic of the hockey players secretly hooking up, so it’s even a step closer to the original comp title than just “hockey romance.” This made me love the pitch even more!

3. High concept hooks include INTRINSIC CONFLICT

This is a more nuanced principle that’s tough to explain in a speed lesson, but the TL;DR version is that the high concept pitch ITSELF contains conflict rather than having a book premise, and then adding a separate conflict to it.

In this book deal announcement, we see the intrinsic conflict here: one wants to make the other fall in love using romance tropes for a lit paper, and the other wants to break his heart for a psychology project.

It’s kind of a brilliant setup.

Their character goals are at odds with each other, AND in conflict with their real-life feelings that develop. The first principle is one we’ve seen in many recent romance novels playing with the meta nature of calling out romance tropes in their romance novel. And the second is the plot of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but different enough the copyright lawyers don’t come a’knocking.

Listen, if you come up with a hook this good? You too can sell in a 2-book pre-empt to a Big 5. And if you fit this flexible high-concept structure to things YOU love? Then you can laugh all the way to the bank WHILE also enjoying your writing time.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

If you have trouble creating marketable hooks, or you’re still feeling fuzzy on what a high concept book IS, check out the full class I wrote on this. It’s quite quick (and cheap!) but really clears up a lot of the confusion.

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Have you heard? My craft book for romance writers came out this week!

The early reviews are rolling in and they’re making my wee little book coach heart melt, because Kiss & Tell is really WORKING for people and making authors’ lives easier, which is all I ever wanted to do. 💗 The writing life is hard enough, y’all.