Reading is Fundamental is a nonprofit organization providing free reading materials—books, instruction and resources—to families unable to provide them for their children. Located on their website are book display ideas that can be adapted for any library or bookstore. Suggestions for seasonal and monthly book displays include monsters for October, back-to-school topics for September, celebrating Mother's Day in May, black history in February and National Poetry Month in April.
Coordinate book displays with the Library of Congress and its Center for the Book event schedule, which is created six months in advance. Events listed for April are “Conquering the Sky: The Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk” by Larry E. Tise and “Baseball Americana: Treasures From the Library of Congress” by Harry Katz, Susan Reyburn, Frank Ceresi, Phil Michel and Wilson McBee.
Autographed copies of books will get the attention of customers. Arranging a reading and signing gets the ball rolling and the public interested, especially when mentioned in local newspapers and magazines and on radio and TV stations. Create a book display around the author. A few snapped photos taken during the reading can add to the display. Consider enlarging them to poster size as a backdrop to the display, and have the author sign extra copies for the display. Toni Buzzeo, a library media specialist, provides links on her website to authors interested in speaking to small library groups and schools (see Resources).
Flip through Publishers Weekly magazine to gain new insight into what books are in the news. Highlighted on its blog Notes From the Bookroom are ideas to center a book display around—biographies of places, greatest novels of all times, money, archaeology, politics, poetry and horror novellas. Publishers Weekly has a list of blogs that provide lots of display ideas, including one on comic books called The Beat, one specifically devoted to children's books called “Shelftalker” and another called “Beyond Her Book,” which features new authors to watch for, new genres and new products in the book publishing industry. Choosing topics from the publishing professionals at Publishers Weekly will keep book display ideas relevant.