M. Louisa Locke has another one of her rare-but-excellent posts up, in which she talks about why she's doing what she's doing. I feel like I've been fairly risk-adverse with my career as well. But you reach a certain age, and it starts to feel like it's now or never, right? (OK, fine, I've actually reached that age more than once.)
She writes:
When I experiment with a new price point or a free promotion and then analyze the outcome, I am engaged in an intellectual exercise that, to a degree, counteracts even a negative sales result. In my mind, my book hasn’t failed and I haven’t failed; the experiment has failed and I have learned something from it.
And it's interesting to me, because I'm rather obviously not a natural at marketing. And yet, here I am with a marketing plan (yes, marketing AND planning! Together! Me! It's shocking), and I'm not freaked out, because it's going to be an opportunity to learn.
I've already learned a lot: Last year was a big one for learning about production. I learned about positioning a book correctly for its audience. And this year I've learned that marketing strategies that don't make me want to hang myself do, in fact, exist.
Like they say, education is the one thing they can never take from you (unless they hit you on the head really, really hard). And lucky me, I enjoy learning. Which is good, because I still have a lot to find out!