Sometimes, in the first go round of anything, you get it wrong or you really mess up.

It didn’t work. You did something stupid. In fact, you want to forget all about it.

Michael Vick knows what that means and so does a book that Free Press published in June called Madonnas of Echo Park. As covered in the WSJ today, they spent a ton on marketing, worked hard on the designing the perfect book cover (to be exact there were 41 versions of it) and it bombed. Sales were disappointing, now what?

Why not try again? That’s what they did. In February the book will come out in paperback with a completely new look. Will the new cover make a difference? They’d never know unless they tried it again.

And this is where you need a second wind.

When something does not work, retool it, rethink it and give it another shot.

For more on this book proposal, view: Hard candy advice. Why sweet is not always better.