Whither High Concept?

One grace note to my Dream Agent smackdown at National was that she praised me for my ability to create a high concept story. I always thought "high concept" meant something truly groundbreaking and new, which meant that there was no way in Hades I'd ever figure out how to do it.

However, Dream Agent explained that an ability to capture the essence of the book in a fresh way that editors and publishers can grasp and market is the core of "high concept."

In my case, that means controlling metaphor. For each of my chick lit/women's fiction books, there's a controlling theme that guides how the characters grow through the story. In The Crash Test Dummy of Love, it's the heroine's view of men as types of cars (The Lemon, The Prototype, The Solid Performer, etc.) and her job to crash test them to make them safe for other women (never her) that provides the backbone of the story. In my WIP, the heroine faces catastrophic change in her life by regressing back to a Five Step Plan her mother taught her back when she was a teenager. Obvs, the book is titled The Five Step Plan. I have other story ideas centered on baseball terms (Life After Little League) and Chinese fortunes (...In Bed). I'm sure at some point, it'll be Jimmy Buffett songs or beach music or something.

Dream Agent says that this is a strength of my work (hoookay, I'll play along), and that being able to convey a story idea in this way is, indeed, high concept. Go figure! Is there a theme or motif in your work that can be incorporated into your blurb that will enliven it from the standard boy-meets-girl-etc. storyline? If so, you're entering High Conceptville.

What do you think about high concept, and are you writing it?