I have a confession. I’m not Brianna Salera. I don’t even play one on TV.
I do, however, write using that name and just published Brianna’s first book, Tessa’sEscape to Athena’s Ground, which is now free on Amazon. Why would I do that when I’ve got
well-reviewed books under my real name?
I’m gonna blame Brianna on Joe.
My “real” books are genre reads that are well-written and professionally
edited. They’ve gotten very good reviews (yes, even by a goodly number of
people I’ve never met.) I’m proud of those books, and plan to do more. The frustration is sales: the first one has
sold from good to not so good, with the past six months being horrifically not
so good. The second has sold well enough to take the family to Mickey D’s for a
happy meal.
Maybe twice.
I was 30,000 words into Book Number Three and plotting ways to address my
woeful sales when I started hearing voices, well, a voice. It was the voice of
Joe Konrath and he was singing one of his favorite songs: When One Thing
Doesn’t Work, Try Another. I tried to ignore it. I put my fingers in my ears
and sang “la la la la la, I can’t hear you.” But I could. Loud and clear.
A very long time ago, back in the day when covers had to be hidden because
eReaders didn’t exist, I got hooked on historical ‘bodice rippers’. My attraction to exposed breasts and giant
‘members’ died after a year or two, but I fondly remember how much fun they
were to read and I wondered if they’d be as much fun to write. Joe’s Try
Something Else siren song and the devil on my shoulder had me loading up my Kindle
with contemporary erotic romances. I read, and acquainted myself with the
heaving bosoms and throbbing members of today’s literary scene. Those books were
fast and fun and I was only a little surprised when my own contemporary, not
historical, storyline grew almost as quickly as this genre reader’s libido.
So I wrote it.
Now I had a little problem. I think my book is pretty good, for those who
like erotic romance. But I’m a fairly conservative girl, and I embarrass
easily. More importantly, I’m a professional with a serious job and I’d be
incredibly uncomfortable if my day job coworkers and employer knew I wrote
erotic contemporary romances. So I did what any brave writer would do, what some
of you have already done, what Joe’s song inspired me to do: I published under
a fake name.
I learned some interesting things with this little experiment.
A rose by any other name…the
name on the cover was the only fake thing about writing Tessa’s Escape to Athena’s Ground.
The book required attention to all the things we writers strive for: creative
plot well-presented, interesting characters, proper pace, engaging voice,
grammatical and structural competence, etc. Yes, Brianna’s name on the cover
will spare me problems at work and embarrassment at the family dinner table.
(“Hey Gram! Tell me about your new book, the one Mom won’t let me read.”) But
it didn’t spare me the work any writing involves, whether one’s real name is on
the cover or not. (Confession Number Two: the research for this one was a whole
lot more fun than the research for my other books.)

Girls just wanna have fun…while
I’m proudest of my “real” books, writing hot romance was so much fun I could
hardly tear myself away from the computer. This makes me wonder: does this mean
my “real” books are the wrong genre for me? Should delight in the process of
writing dictate what one writes? I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m sure
thinking about it in a way I hadn’t before.
Joe’s blog has given me a lot to think about over the years. My biggest blog
takeaway is to try something different when things seem stuck (refuse to give
up!) What’s
your Number One Takeaway from Joe’s Blog? And how have you used it?
If you enjoy erotic romance please check out Tessa’s
Escape to Athena’s Ground, by me, not really Brianna Salera. It’s currently
on KDP promo, free at Amazon through September 21st. If Tessa does even a little better than
nothing, I’ll probably write another in the Athena’s Ground series. It’s just
too damn much fun, it keeps Joe’s song down to a dull roar, and I already have a
new character bouncing around in my head, begging for a shot at Athena’s Ground.
But first I must get back to my “real” writing. I’m going to finish Book
Number Three before Christmas, or my name isn’t Brianna Salera.
Joe sez: Pick up Tessa's Escape. It's free.
My #1 takeway from my blog is the comments and guest bloggers. I'm constantly learning from other people, and upping my game because of it. Thanks for the blog post, Brianna, and for the free book.