Just as Penguin Random House last week was ramping up #GiveaBook, its social media campaign that promotes books as gifts while serving as a way to donate books to U.S. children, Chronicle Books completed its third annual #GiveBooks campaign.
Conducted in partnership with nonprofit First Book (PRH is partnering with Save the Children), the Chronicle program reached its goal of giving 10,000 books to children in record time. The campaign reached its goal over Thanksgiving weekend partly due to the addition of Tumblr to this year’s roster of social media sharing platforms.
Kathryn Jaller, senior community manager at Chronicle Books, said that “We added Tumblr this year and it really took off. It just kept going and going.” Under the program, for every pledge shared on social media using the #GiveBooks hashtag, Chronicle Books donated a book to a child in need until it hit 10,000 books.
To help spread the word about the campaign, Chronicle Books teamed with a handful of its favorite authors, bloggers, and Instagram influencers, who selected 10 of their favorite Chronicle titles that they love to post about. One of these partners was Chronicle author Kamram Siddiqi of The Sophisticated Gourmet, whose new book Hand Made Baking: Recipes to Warm The Heart, is out in time for the holiday season. “Books are the world to me,” said Siddiqi. “To share them with people that want and need them is phenomenal. “
“We’re really proud of this campaign,” said Jaller. “It’s always been our goal to make this campaign a movement.”
Claire von Schilling, senior v-p and director of corporate communications at PRH, said its campaign will run up until December 25 and will donate up to 25,000 books. “There is a diversity of vital charitable match programs in our industry, and we are thrilled to be part of that landscape by launching #GiveaBook as a meaningful way to celebrate the gift-giving season and to support the important work of Save the Children,” von Schilling said.
