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Penguin Random House Extends #GiveaBook Campaign

Within three weeks of its #GiveaBook campaign’s launch on Small Business Saturday, November 29, Penguin Random House surpassed its goal of donating 25,000 books to the Save the Children project. The publisher had pledged to donate a new book, up to 25,000 books, for each #GiveaBook hashtag that appeared on Facebook or Twitter.  In the face of the campaign’s overwhelming success, Penguin Random House has announced that it is extending the campaign to donate up to 10,000 more titles through December 24.

The #GiveaBook video challenge encourages people to announce a book they’re giving to a friend and the reason why, then challenge three friends to make their own videos and post them online using the hashtag. Marketing materials for retailers looking to get involved in the #GiveaBook campaign are available here. The campaign can also be followed on Twitter and on Facebook.

Author Jeffrey Stayton Gives $1,500 to Independent Bookstores

Debut author — and former employee of Burke’s Book Store in Memphis, Tennessee — Jeffrey Stayton is giving away $250 grants to six independent bookstores in a competition he calls Cheer for the Bookstores, reported the Christian Science Monitor.

Winners of the grants include Burke’s Book Store; Horton’s Books & Gifts in Carrollton, Georgia; Books of Wonder in New York, New York; Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia; 40 Acre Wood in Lexington, Texas; and Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina.

Stayton’s book, This Side of the River, will be published in February by Nautilus Publishing.

Wiley Chairman Peter Booth Wiley to Retire

John Wiley & Sons announced on Monday that Chairman Peter Booth Wiley will retire as chair when his current term ends in September 2015, Business Wire reported. Wiley’s Board of Directors recommended that Wiley’s name be included on the ballot for election as a director for a one-year term come September. Wiley joined the board in 1984 and became chairman in 2002.

Matthew S. Kissner, who has served on the Board since 2003, has been identified as a likely successor for Wiley. Kissner is currently president and CEO of the financial advisory firm The Kissner Group. If Kissner is re-elected to the Board in September, the Wiley Board has expressed its intention to appoint him as its next chair.