Turn the Other Cheek: Strategies for Independent Bookstores

Turn the Other Cheek

Strategies for Independent Bookstores

Retreating can be a strong advance.

Part 13 of the 36-part “Book Wars” series of articles

by David A. Rozansky, Publisher, Flying Pen Press

Readers, Writers & Royalties columnist

June 3, 2009

Copyright 2009 David A. Rozansky

(Note: This is the 13th article in the “Book Wars” series of articles, wherein the author interprets the strategies taught in The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene, and applies them to the business of the independent bookseller, in the arena of the difficult book trade. The first article in this series can be read at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977657920.)

This series of articles discusses how war strategies can be applied to the book trade for the benefit of the independent bookseller. These war strategies are described in Robert Greene’s The 33 Strategies of War; their application to the book trade is my own interpretation of Greene’s astute studies. In this article, I look at the Non-Engagement Strategy.

The “Non-Engagement Strategy” is the strategy of turning the other cheek, of refusing to engage, of retreating to fight another day. It is a strategy that has many different benefits in war and in business.

In war, there is often a belief that retreating is a show of weakness, when in actuality, it takes great courage and strength. Retreating is a means of trading space for time.

In business, this strategy is one of reputation. When the competition is at its worse, forcing down prices, stealing customers and being tough, and you take the strategy of holding to your standard practices, the public often sees your competitor as a bully, Never mind that you are waiting for the perfect moment to unleash a tempest in the enemy’s tent.

One of the finer aspects of Non-Engagement is that it allows you to keep your head when the competition is getting fierce. You can see more of what is going on instead of being drawn into a nasty fight, which would only distract you from serving your customers the way they deserve.

And when the competitor is targeting you directly, throwing spitwads at your window, it will only confuse and irritate them when you ignore their marketing attacks. They are likely to step up the fight, beating harder at the gates. While you watch, they will expose their strategies to you, and you can formulate the perfect counterstrategy in perfect stealth.

If not engaging the competition irritates them, it becomes that much more effective. In their frustration, they are likely to try harder to “get at you,” and thus overcommit their resources. This then exposes them to your surprise marketing tactics that they are in no position to counter. If this sounds like your competitor, than non-engagement is an excellent strategy.

Non-engagement is also good advice for any independent bookstore trying to fight a large chain store. The chain has the resources to buy their inventory in such bulk quantities that they can sell a book to the public for the same price you have to buy it from the wholesalers. They can stay open longer hours, and have first dibs on the best retail sites in town. And if a local bookseller takes on U.S. Booksellers & Co. Store #3291 with serious ammunition like a zoning-law campaign or a price war to the death, the chain’s HQ will bring out their nuclear arsenal, launching lawyers and lobbyists at the upstart indie, right and left.

But a bookseller that does not try to outdo Store #3291 but instead keeps their own nose to their own grindstone can discover a neat secret. If the managers of Store #3291 don’t see any response from the local competition, they tend to focus on the corporate orders and keeping to the company policies. They open the boxes they are told to open, place the books where they are told to place them, and use the displays they are told to display. The managers will turn their attention to matters of staff scheduling and cutting costs while the war strategy is left up to the head honchos in a city far, far away, directed most likely at their primary competitors, Big Books of Pine Hills Mall.

Meanwhile, the small or independent bookstore can quietly adapt to the business environment and make their store morph subtly into something that is better than what the two warring factions of U.S. Booksellers and Big Books can offer. Staying under the radar, as it were, Molly’s Main Street Books can become the store that stands out as the best bookstore in town. A few extra chairs, warm relations with the local writers, and style all her own is all that Molly may need to win back her customers.

I would even put forth the idea that this strategy also works against Amazon in a subtle way. Amazon is a mindless monster, a computer-run order-taking system that catches your customers at home. Trying to match prices with Amazon is an effort in futility. But by not engaging Amazon in a price war, a store can find ways to sell books in ways that Amazon cannot.

One idea I have always had is to put a small bank of pinball machines in the back of a store. Even the kid who is an Xbox addict will find that no computer experience can match the tactile sensation of a pinball machine, and they are so rare in today’s computerized world that it will be a good draw for traffic.

Another idea I have had—that Amazon can’t match—is putting in a library bookdrop in your store. This hits not only Amazon, but the public library. A customer who has finished a library book often needs another book to read. Why not help them into your bookstore at this critical moment instead of forcing them to the library where they would instead browse the shelves of the library stacks? Advance the idea, and put in a DVD rental kiosk, a phonebook-and-newspaper recycling bin, and a mailbox service. Heck, why not a sign in your window that says you buy used books from those who have the original Amazon packing slip?

In other words, the more automated the competition is, the more valuable that your creative ideas become. Non-Engagement of the enemy is all about sitting back and letting your imagination run wild. Lose part of the market today to the competition, in order to redefine the market conditions tomorrow to your complete advantage.

This wraps up the discussion of the four defensive strategies mentioned in The 33 Strategies of War: Choosing Your Battles; Counterattacks, Deterrence Strategies; and Non-Engagement. With the next installment, we open up the armory and look at offensive strategies, beginning with the granddaddy of all war strategies, the Grand Strategy.

Meanwhile, let’s hear from Book Warriors on creative defensive strategies they may have used in the past.

--

This is just one article in David A. Rozansky’s column, Readers, Writers & Royalties, a blog column about the book trade, from writing and publishing, to selling and reading. This series of articles—“Book Wars”—is an interpretation of the strategies listed in Robert Greene’s The 33 Strategies of War, as they apply to the independent bookseller. The next installment of this column begins the discussions of offensive strategies with a look at Grand Strategy.

Readers may find archived articles or subscribe to Readers, Writers & Royalties at www.ReadWriteRoyalty.Gather.com. Subscribe to all of Mr. Rozansky’s articles at www.FlyingPenPress.Gather.com.

David A. Rozansky is the publisher of Flying Pen Press. He has been in publishing since 1987, and has more than one million published words under his byline. Flying Pen Press is at http://www.FlyingPenPress.com. He is available for speaking on the subject of writing magazine articles, public relations, marketing and book-length material.

The book mentioned in this article is The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene (Penguin Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-14-311278-5, trade ppb, $18.00).