How do I create a release-please "beta" release after a major version > 1?

Question

I am currently using Google's release-please GitHub action to automatically version and release packages from the main branch.

How can I release from a dev branch, a "beta" release version?

For context, this is the GitHub action job step from main:

    release-please:
        runs-on: some-vm
        steps:
            - name: Release with release-please
              id: release
              uses: google-github-actions/release-please-action@v3
              with:
                  release-type: node
                  default-branch: main
                  token: ${{ GITHUB_TOKEN }}
            - name: Checkout
              uses: actions/checkout@v3
              if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.releases_created }}
            # Setup .npmrc file to publish to github packages
            - name: Setup Node
              uses: actions/setup-node@v3
              with:
                  node-version: "16"
                  registry-url: "https://npm.pkg.github.com"
                  cache: "npm"
              if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.releases_created }}
            - name: Install dependencies
              run: npm i
              if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.releases_created }}
            - name: Build library
              run: npm run build:lib
              if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.releases_created }}
            - name: Publish release
              run: npm publish
              if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.releases_created }}
              env:
                  NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ GITHUB_TOKEN }}