This spring, over the course of two weeks, I came across the Chris Ware Acme Novelty Library displace twice.  It is gorgeous — in an ideal world, it could be replicated in wood and everyone would have one in their own home as sort of an Acme Novelty Library Bookshelf-Tree. 

(that would be awesome)

(also here is a picture that does it very little justice)

Apparently coming across that display was also some sort of sign, because a few weeks later, we embarked on a display project of our own.  Our display (for an upcoming fall book) is nothing like as intricate as Chris', but has a +10 power of adorability.

We just got a real, live version in our office, so pictures!

(next to one of our parent company's displays for It's a Book, also coming out this fall)

(a closer-up view that also showcases super-advance copies of earlier-than-brand-new Adventures in Cartooning Activity Book, winging its way to a retailer near you in August)

(why yes, that is a die-cut header designed by the lovely and talented Colleen AF Venable)

Putting on my marketing hat for the end of the post, here's the v. short of why displays are awesome. 

Bookstores only have limited amounts of shelves by reason being bound to a limited physical location.   And most of their shelves are taken up by books they keep permanently in stock (it would be silly, for example, not to have at least one copy of Where the Wild Things Are or Harriet the Spy or From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler or Bone in your bookstore AT ALL TIMES).  So the booksellers have to pick and choose from the books that are coming out for what they'll have space for on the few shelves that are left for new books.  A lot of books don't get picked up (because there are hundreds of thousands of books published a year) and for a lot of the books that do get picked up, there isn't enough space on the shelves to display them face-out. 

But when you put a display in the mix: voila, instant face-out-shelf-space that wasn't there before!  And it doesn't require rearranging, getting rid of books you had already, or anything!

So that's exciting!

(and also adorable!  just look at it!)