A few weeks ago, I read a proposal by my critique partner. Since I’ve been working with this writer for over four years, I’ve read a lot of her proposals, as she’s read a lot of mine. When you reach that level of familiarity with another person’s work, you develop a sort of extra-sensory perception about it. You know when a project has that certain something that is going to make it pop. She knew, for instance, that I’d sell SSG on proposal. In fact her email to me on the topic said I’d sell it on proposal, and at auction. (She’s awfully smug about being right.)
And I knew, when I read her latest, a few weeks back, that we were dealing with something very special indeed. The enthusiasm and freshness fairly shone out from the pages! I barely made notes. I said it was going to sell fast, and sell well, and I’m happy to be smug about that now:
| 13 November, 2007 | |||||
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| Children’s: Young Adult |
Marley Gibson’s GHOST HUNTRESS series, featuring a transplanted Chicago teen who begins to experience a psychic awakening, then forms a ragtag ghost hunting team to research and battle the belligerent ghosts in her historic Southern town, to Julia Richardson at Houghton Mifflin, in a very nice deal, for three books, by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency (NA). | ||||
Sadly, the rest of you all are going to have to wait until 2009 to read this fantastic new series!
I think the above description of Marley’s new series is also a top-notch example of high concept. In just this short, one-sentence description, you get a great idea of what the book is going to be about. You get a good idea of the heroine (fish out of water city girl), the setting (historic southern town), the secondary characters (other ghost hunters), and the storyline (latent psychic abilities, ghostbusting). She could have called it Medium Meets Mean Girls or Veronica Mars with Ghosts, but I think this gets the point across best. The nice thing about high concept stories is that they immediately get across that the story has “It.”
A lot of detractors of high concept say it only works with action-style stories. That “quiet,” character-driven stories can’t be expressed in a high-concept manner. I disagree with this. Last month, I saw the movie The Jane Austen Book Club (based on a book), which is a character driven piece about a group of multi-generational women (and one evolved if nerdy guy), each dealing with their own romantic issues, who decide to read all the novels of Jane Austen as a source of inspiration and comfort, and discover how Jane’s stories can create a template for their own life changes.
Less than 50 words and you’ve got a great idea of what happens in that story.
I’ve been eagerly reading the Bookends blog and the pitch reviews that Jessica Faust has been doing for the past week or so, and the more of these you read, the more you begin to see what stories have It and which don’t. (I had the same experience watching the Snarkometer entries a year back.) Now, not all of the pitches worked, even if the idea was solid, but there were instances where I could see that with a bit of cutting and trimming, that story would emerge.
And now, for the writers in the group: what do you think of High Concept? Of the sample pitches on the Bookends Blog? And how about a big woo hoo to Marley on her fabulous new series sale!
November 14th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Congrats to Marley. The series sounds excellent!! Can’t wait to read it. I’m a fan of high-concept books, and I think most books can be pitched that way if you boil it down to its roots. I’ve just been catching bits and pieces of the Bookends pitch reviews. However, Kristin Nelson has been speaking to a similar topic, and even in the “quieter” queries she’s shown on her blog, I think there’s still something in the tone or maybe how it’s presented that “feels” high-concept.
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November 14th, 2007 at 8:43 am
WOOO HOOO MARLEY-MAR!!! So excited for you!!!
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November 14th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I hustled over from the chickloop because I just KNEW you’d give details
That does sound awesome! So many catchy pieces to it, and who doesn’t love a girl who can kick some supernatural butt?
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November 14th, 2007 at 9:55 am
(Been reading a while, but don’t really comment…I’ll just say everything one go and head back to lurking!)
That series sounds like fun! I’ll have to look for it. Congrats to Marley.
As for the pitches at BookEnds, it’s definitely enlightening. I find myself agreeing with Jessica a lot, and I can’t wait to see what she thinks of mine, and to see what others comment on it. (I’m way down the list, the sci/fi novel, The Delandar Tapestry, and I know now I should not have listed the title/wc!)
Beautiful wedding photos, too. I enjoy your blog. It’s practical but fun.
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November 14th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Congratulations, Marley! Sounds like a fabulous series!
Great pictures Diana – you had such a beautiful day for your wedding.
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November 14th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Congratulations, Marley! That is fabulous news.
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November 14th, 2007 at 10:33 am
A HUGE congratulations to Marley. So excited about this new series.
And I think you’re totally on the mark (as usual) with your comments about high concept. To me, it doesn’t mean there have to be rocket launchers or super powers involved… Just that that story can be distilled into an exciting, can’t wait to read it, understand what it’s going to be, sound bite.
Now, only if I could come up with one for my current WIP. Damn.
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November 14th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Congrats Marley!
Though I’m freaking out slightly, as my current WIP is also about a teenage ghost hunter. VERY different circumstances, but still…{worries}
Anyway, I can usually tell whether a pitch has IT or not too. I can fool myself that something does, sometimes, but then when I see the real deal it’s just different.
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November 14th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Yay, Marley!!!!!
I’m fascinated by the Bookends “Perfecting Your Pitch” posts, and I’m looking forward to having mine discussed.
I wouldn’t say that I’m a fan of “high concept” books…BUT then again, I think it’s possible to create a tight pitch for almost any novel. I’m a fan of literary fiction, but I still think lots of literary work could be pitched with a brief, powerful sort-of-high-concept statement that’s faithful to the book.
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November 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Hey, Precie, can you clarify more what you mean? It sounds like you’re saying that literary novels aren’t high concept. Personally, I can’t think of anything more high concept than “a man wakes up to discover he’s been turned into a cockroach” but that’s just me.
Most of the great novels I read during my years as a Literature major at Yale were also incredibly high concept as well.
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November 14th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Wow…thanks for the shout-out, Diana! Means the world to me. Glad you guys are anxious to read the books. Now, I just need to write them. LOL!!
Marley = )
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November 15th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Congrats Marley! I can’t wait to read all your books and am so excited that you’ve got another series started!
As for the pitches on the Bookends blog, I’ve also been fascinated because so many of them tell you nothing about the book. For many of them, there’s just no way to give an opinion either way when they say something like “A father and daughter learn how to love again after a tragic incident.” What does that tell you? Nothing! What surprises me most is how many people write their pitches that way. But then again, not everyone has Diana to write their pitches for them
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November 15th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Yayayayay, Marley!!!
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November 15th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Diana—I think you and I are in total agreement and simply talking from different vantage points.
I personally don’t think literary fiction is necessarily separate from “high concept.” I think my ambivalence has to do with the notion of “high concept.”
“Quiet” novels, novels in which Very Little Happens, can absolutely be sold with high-concept pitches.
My contention has to do with, for instance, (as your link to the Knight Agency page explains) high concept books as “accessible” and “commercial.” A lot of my favorite novels are probably neither.
(Most people I know would NOT call George Eliot’s Middlemarch, for instance, but it’s one of my all-time favorites. And given time, I swear I could write a high concept pitch for it that would remain true to its “quiet” stature.)
So ultimately, I guess what I’m saying is that the phrase “high- concept book” seems…I don’t know…
ANY book could be a high-concept book…because it’s not a matter of what the book IS…it’s a matter of how the book is presented.
(I really hope this post isn’t perceived as confrontational. I’m just working out ideas in my head, and I hope this fosters dialogue, Diana, because I’m eager to see more of your thoughts on this.)
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