What is HIGH CONCEPT? What is a BIG BOOK?

Screenwriting Tricks for Authors

High Concept is the Holy Grail of a salable book or script. Your story doesn’t have to be High Concept to sell, but it definitely helps! But what exactly is that?

There was a panel I did, I think at a RWA National Conference, on The High Concept Premise, during which we were analyzing High Concept in books and movies, and the even more elusive concept of the Big Book. One of the editor panelists had polled a number of other editors to ask them how they would define a Big Book. She reported that while everyone said that the Big Book is the one that everyone is always looking for (well, duh!!) —no one could give her a specific answer about what exactly it is. Or even try. 

A Big Book is the one all the editors get excited about because they think they can make a ton of money with it.

But what IS that? 

I’m used to people being vague about what High Concept is. And yes, it’s an “I know it when I see it” kind of thing – the story idea that is so good that it is painfully obvious, only no one else has thought of it until now. And as my editor friend and I were talking, I realized that a Big Book is slightly different from a High Concept book. 

They are NOT necessarily interchangeable terms, but they’re both incredibly useful to know. Especially BEFORE you start writing!

Let’s start with High Concept. This is a Hollywood term. And very often, it IS what editors mean when they talk about a Big Book.

If you can tell your story in one line and everyone who hears it can see exactly what the movie or book is – AND a majority of people who hear it will want to see it or read it – that’s High Concept.