How to make your book irresistible to agents 🔥

The beauty —and power — of high-concept books.

When I worked at a literary agency in New York City, I saw things that most aspiring writers never get to see.

I saw debut authors sign massive book deals. I saw agents launch new talent onto bestseller lists. And, sadly, I saw hundreds of queries get rejected.

But the most exciting days were the ones where we received that rare query that made the agent sit up in their chair. One that they pounced on immediately.

“Request the full right now,” they’d tell me. And then we’d read it immediately.

Sometimes these queries would end up getting multiple agent offers, and the author would have to choose between them in what the industry calls a “beauty contest.”

Looking back, I realized that those select queries that got so much buzz and excitement had one thing in common:

The stories were all what the publishing industry calls “high-concept.”

You’ve probably heard this term thrown around. Maybe you’ve seen it on a literary agent’s manuscript wish list and wondered: Does my book need to be high-concept to get published? And what the heck does that mean, anyway — that I have to throw in a bunch of explosions or set it in a speculative world?

(The answers are no, by the way.)

Today, I want to talk about the power of high-concept storytelling and why every author should harness it, even if your story is “quiet.”

Because it can make agents and readers pay attention (and buy in) even before they’ve read a single word of your writing.

OK…but what is a high-concept book?