DFRAT Guest Post Heidi Cullinan

Today we have Heidi Cullinan on sharing her experience with e-reading. We are giving away a complete set of her Etsey Series, The Pirates Game, Temple Boy, The Seventh Veil. 

I chose to publish digitally in large part because it was my only option. My first few stories are male/male romances, and the only publishers I could find were either primarily digital or digital first. I ended up starting with Dreamspinner Press, an all-m/m romance publisher who does digital and print at the same time, but the print is print-on-demand.

I’m now published with Loose Id and Samhain as well, and at this point I wouldn’t even consider a traditional publishing structure unless they could show me I’d still make as much money as I do in digital-first. I don’t make a living quite yet, but it’s to the point that my husband haunts the mailbox for my paycheck because I carry my weight in the bill department. Also, by and large my experiences with digital publishers prove them to be as professional and serious as New York, if not smarter much of the time.

As a reader, I resent it when I have to read a print book. I can’t take it with me everywhere. I can’t transfer it between devices. It doesn’t come with its own lighting. Paper feels so wasteful now, especially now that I know how clumsy it’s made the publishing industry. So much about digital has streamlined the process and cut out the fat. As a reader, it gets me books I want fast and in a format I love. As an author, it has meant a career moving faster and cleaner than I ever thought publishing to be.

I’m a total digital fan, inside and out. I look forward to the day when paper books are ones we buy rarely and in beautiful, original formats–just like the old days.