Originally released in print in February 2011, On Heaven’s Couch: My Journey with a Masterful Mentor tells of Fabi Preslar’s early years and then her powerful relationship with her mentor, Yvonne. A vibrant, outspoken French woman, Yvonne takes in Fabi’s family when they lose their home. A teenager at the time, Fabi struggles with her place in the world but finds a tough but wise counselor in Yvonne and goes on to become a successful businesswoman, mother, empowering public speaker, and mentor. Years later as Yvonne’s health declines, Fabi spends time caring for Yvonne and gathering even more lessons, which she shares in this book.
Watch the original book release trailer here and enjoy those seven-year-old video effects.
We asked Fabi a few questions about her On Heaven’s Couch e-book.
Why release the e-book now?
When I released the paperback, e-books weren’t as advanced as they are now. E-readers were black and white and didn’t support graphics very well. Black-and-white is not my preference and definitely doesn’t represent Yvonne. Now that the software has advanced, I can make my reflowable e-book look almost exactly like my print book, with the beautiful, full-page graphics and quotes from Yvonne. And my readers can view those full-color pages on most mobile devices, not just black-and-white e-readers. It’s also the seventh anniversary, and this summer I’ll release my second book, Fabulous F Words of Business Ownership just in time to celebrate twenty years of business ownership with SPARK Publications.
Are e-books an essential part of a book’s distribution plan?
It always depends on the books. When I first launched the beautiful print version of On Heaven’s Couch, I felt it was important to hug and hold the book. Now I feel it is more important to send out my mentor’s message even further and wider, which an e-book will help to accomplish.
Some authors—especially those publishing outside the traditional methods—choose to release only an e-book at first, although I don’t necessarily recommend that. Sales numbers for 2017 aren’t yet available, but last year the Association of American Publishers reported that print book sales rose in 2016, while e-book sales fell. Researchers attribute the e-book sales decline to younger audiences who have fallen out of love with all digital, all the time. Notably, audiobook sales increased the most, so an audiobook may be on my to-do list for my next book. We’ll see. My point is that print is still quite strong.
You mentioned that your book is full of colorful quotes. Tell us about those.
I captured some of Yvonne’s most powerful lessons in full-page pull quotes—things like “When you worry, you short circuit. You cannot have fear and faith at the same time.” So readers can flip through the book and gain tremendous nuggets of wisdom just from these pages throughout the book.
Is anything different in the e-book?
Not much. I updated my bio and headshot. And an excerpt of something I wrote for my daughter, Sofi, when she was 10 years old is now at the end.
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