Chest shop help

[SlenderBrine]

I was making a library to sell books and I just found out you have to put signs on TOP of the chest and not on the side. This bothers me to the extreme as it is visually floating above the chest. Is there a way you can change this to make the sign on the side of the chest?
Thank you.

This is what is bothering me:
http://i.imgur.com/uvymlnB.png

EDIT:
Another thing is, I cannot sell any written books. It says it's out of stock.
http://imgur.com/a/rjtYs