Hollywood has tuned our minds to the ring of the high concept. The high concept story line works to sell blockbuster movies because people love them. It’s easy to understand why. Say you’re at the water cooler on a Monday morning and a colleague says she saw a great movie over the weekend. So you ask about it. She says it’s about a squad of soldiers after D-Day who are assigned to go find a private who is now an only son after his brother is killed in battle. When she tells you the title: Saving Private Ryan, you know immediately the story is about adventure, risk, heroism, and action. You decide then and there if you will go see it.
High concept stories are easy to sell because the story line is so strong it can be passed along through a strong emotional appeal by word-of-mouth. High concept stories also attract media attention generating interviews and profiles. This is how most movies rise into the blockbuster ranks.
It’s no different with business or self-help books. The book must have that word-of-mouth enthusiasm before people will pass it along to their friends. In business books the concept is used differently but still has the same operation. Instead of focusing on pure entertainment, it centers on providing a solution.
A business book concept is a solution to a set of related problems wrapped in a title. The title becomes the buying proposition. If the solution appeals to potential readers, they become willing buyers. Writing a high concept story or book takes a lot of work and creativity. It’s as much art and as it is science.
You’ve probably said to yourself that you have a great idea for a book. An idea in isolation won’t make a book. A book must contain a variety of ideas that are so well-developed they hold together to form a concept that solves a specific range of problems.
For instance automobile manufacturers use concept cars when they have a whole range of new features they want to wrap into one innovative and futuristic design. Manufacturers use concept cars as experiments to see how all these new technologies harmonize to solve a range of problems drivers experience: collision control, speed, drive train, engine technology, automatic steering, etc., etc.
It’s the same with a business book concept.
Books are not based on seedlings, but on fully matured ideas called concepts. A book with a well-thought out winning concept may not make it a New York Times Bestselling book, but I want to lay down a golden rule right here: Every book on the NY Times Bestseller List has a clear, high concept. That concept resonates with a significant slice of the reading public, so that it can be easily promoted by word of mouth as well as through other media. That’s why some books make it to bestsellerdom and some don’t.
It’s as much about the quality of the analytical thinking that goes into the book as the quality of the writing itself. Concept before craft, and you will not have to slave years to have a completed book.
Let’s try my theory that the concept contains the problem solving theme of the book that can be communicate concisely. Let’s look at some examples of past NYTimes best sellers.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. The problem the book proposes to solve for readers is stated in the title: successful people have a definable set of habits. This is a self-help book that business people in every industry have used to solve the daily discipline issues, to set priorities, and to achieve a lasting success. Millions of people have bought this book.
In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters. The book describes eight excellent management strategies based on the study of forty-three of the nation’s most successful companies. Written almost forty years ago it is listed at #48 on Amazon eBook sales. It’s message is current because its solution centered
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The #1 Personal Finance book of all time, tells the story of the author and his two dads—his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad—and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. Kiyosaki could not sell this book in New York, so he self-published it. To date he’s sold over five million copies.
Each of these books have stood the test of time. They are still selling well years after their first publication because they solve problems that never go out of date. People read business books to solve problems that are personal, financial, or operational.
As a ghostwriter I not only write client’s books, I take them step by step through the process of turning their expertise and their ideas into a concept that will drive an entire book—a book that prospects in their niche will want to read, refer to, and recommend to their colleagues and friends.
If you have an idea, I can help you nuance it into a concept that will carry an entire book. An expert with a book is now an author who stands out from his or her competition in ways that no other medium can do for you. It multiplies your experience. It makes you more valuable. It establishes the brand of you in a unique way. A quality book is well worth the effort and expense.
In one session I can help you develop your concept. Then you can decide if you want to write the book. For a free consultation email me at jrdesimone@yahoo.comor call at 714-244-0554.
In my next blog post I’m going to examine how to begin a business book: Leading with Ego or Expertise.
