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C.S. Pacat

Goodreads Author

Born

Australia

Website

http://cspacat.com

Twitter

cspacat

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Gay & Lesbian

Member Since

March 2015

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/cspacat

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C.S. Pacat is a Melbourne writer. Her first series the Captive Prince trilogy began its life as an original web serial. Self-published in 2013 to critical and commercial success and acclaim, the Captive Prince trilogy was acquired by Penguin, and will be published worldwide in 2015.

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Popular Answered Questions

Did you ever receive criticism or rejection when writing Captive Prince? If so, how did you deal with it and eventually publish?

C.S. Pacat Captive Prince started off as a web serial that garnered viral attention, and after I'd written the first two volumes in that format I tried to…moreCaptive Prince started off as a web serial that garnered viral attention, and after I'd written the first two volumes in that format I tried to publish commercially, and was rejected just about everywhere - agents, publishers, you name it. But because I had so many requests for a paperback from online readers, I eventually self published, and the books shot up the charts - and after that were picked up by Penguin, where the series went on to become a USA Today bestseller.

I was lucky in that sense that I learned that rejection has nothing to do with whether a book will make it or not, or whether it will connect with readers. Publishers might reject a book because it's just not to an editor's particular taste, or because it's new - publishers are essentially venture capitalists, and if something is new it's marketing potential is zero, or at best "question mark". I was also really lucky to have had enthusiastic readers, who encouraged me along the way, and to be writing at a time when the internet and self publishing offers alternate paths for publication. My book got to prove itself to publishers in the market.

I didn't necessarily have a single method for dealing with rejection, but I remember when I was sending Captive Prince out on queries, I kept a "rejection book" where I printed and pasted all my rejection letters, and journalled my feelings about each one next to them. I found that useful to process what I was feeling, and make each rejection feel like part of a process rather than the End of All Things.

As for criticism - I think all writers receive criticism, because no book is universally liked. Liking a book is often not only a matter of personal taste, but of the exact moment in time that you read it: the book I read and loved at fifteen I might hate at thirty, and vice versa.

I think it's important to take criticism seriously but not personally. I always want to grow and improve as a writer, and I think criticism and praise both offer opportunities to do that, ways of glimpsing your work from the outside as it is received by different types of readers.

I am one of those writers who thinks that the book is made by the author and then remade by the reader's mind - remade by the act of reading - so that in a sense no two people read the same book. In that way, writing is an imperfect form of communication: you write hoping to evoke this image or this feeling in the reader, but your tools are blunt, limited, and once the reader begins to read, you the author have lost control over what exactly they will feel and experience. Thus a book that is consoling to one reader may be corrosive to another, a book that is boring to one reader may be brilliant to another, because a reader's mind is where a book springs to life.

The best advice I ever heard about criticism was from Karen Joy Fowler who was asked - but if books are subjective, how do you know when your book is working, how do you know which criticism is valid? She said (paraphrasing) that if there are people who love the book, it is working, and it's okay if there are people who don't like it, as that will happen for every book. But if the love isn't there yet, then rewrite. (less)

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Is there something you feel like you wish you would've known sooner about writing? A certain technique, tip etc. that you can't live without now? :D

C.S. Pacat When I first started trying to write a novel, I wish I had known two things. First, that writing a novel is really hard, and second, that no one can…moreWhen I first started trying to write a novel, I wish I had known two things. First, that writing a novel is really hard, and second, that no one can write a novel when they first start out - everyone will have stuff they just can't do, like plotting, or coming up with ideas, or getting past the beginning, or making decisions, or whatever.

When I was starting out - and I think this happens to a lot of people - I found everything hard, and there was a lot that I couldn't do, and I thought that since it wasn't easy and I couldn't do it straight away, I must not be a writer. I wish someone had said to me then, "This is normal. It feels hard because it is hard. No one can do it when they first start out. What you're feeling, every novelist goes through this. The long period where you're producing bad work and you can't write a novel is the normal stage that everyone has to persevere through in order to be able to write a novel." (less)

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Combine Editions
C.S. Pacat’s books

Average rating: 4.28 · 83,214 ratings · 12,050 reviews · 11 distinct works • Similar authors

	Captive Prince (Captive Prince, #1) 3.97 avg rating — 30,625 ratings — published 2015 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Captive Prince: Volume Two (Captive Prince, #2) 4.50 avg rating — 23,691 ratings — published 2015 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kings Rising (Captive Prince, #3) 4.49 avg rating — 19,404 ratings — published 2016 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Summer Palace (Captive Prince Short Stories, #2) 4.42 avg rating — 4,678 ratings — published 2017 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Green but for a Season (Captive Prince Short Stories, #1) 3.79 avg rating — 2,376 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Adventures of Charls, the Veretian Cloth Merchant (Captive Prince Short Stories, #3) 4.52 avg rating — 1,902 ratings — published 2017 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fence (Fence, #1) by C.S. Pacat (Goodreads Author), Johanna the Mad (Artist) 4.20 avg rating — 493 ratings — published 2017 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Die Prinzen (The Captive Prince, #1 #2 #3) 4.44 avg rating — 45 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fence it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — expected publication 2018	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fence #2 (Fence, #2) by C.S. Pacat (Goodreads Author), Johanna the Mad (Illustrator) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — expected publication 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by C.S. Pacat…

38 posts
C.S. Pacat's Blog

New comic FENCE available for preorder!

I'm teaming up with BOOM! Box comics and the amazing artist Johanna the Mad to write FENCE - the comic of my dreams!

FENCE follows 16-year-old outsider Nicholas Cox as he enters the world of competitive fencing at an elite boys school. There will be intense rivalries, lifelong friendships, exhilarating swordfights... and slow burn romance between teammates!

To make sure you get your copy of FENCE... Read more of this blog post »

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Published on October 20, 2017 18:12 • 330 views • Tags: fence, new-release

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Series by C.S. Pacat

Captive Prince (3 books)
by C.S. Pacat (Goodreads Author)
4.28 avg rating — 82,670 ratings

Captive Prince Short Stories (3 books)
by C.S. Pacat (Goodreads Author)
4.27 avg rating — 8,955 ratings

Fence (2 books)
by C.S. Pacat (Goodreads Author), Johanna the Mad (Illustrator)
4.21 avg rating — 498 ratings

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C.S. Pacat wrote a new blog post New comic FENCE available for preorder! I'm teaming up with BOOM! Box comics and the amazing artist Johanna the Mad to write FENCE - the comic of my dreams! FENCE follows 16-year-old outsi... Read more of this blog post »
Oct 20, 2017 06:12PM · 35 likes · like

More of C.S.'s books…

Quotes by C.S. Pacat

“I think if I gave you my heart, you would treat it tenderly.”
― C.S. Pacat, Kings Rising

432 likes

“I lack," said Laurent, "the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with," you could see him pushing the words out, "a lover."
"You lack the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with anyone," said Damen.”
― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

tags: captive-prince, damen, laurent

395 likes

“Then, in the spirit of benevolence, "Your face is well balanced." She slapped him encouragingly on the back, "You have very long eyelashes. Like a cow.”
― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

tags: eyelashes, fantasy, flattery, m-m-romance

287 likes

See all C.S. Pacat's quotes »