Guinness World Records challenge
Background, by Candy Mellor
As old as time itself comes the tale of the Underdog, the little guy, the ‘George and Lennie’ of their generation, fighting for headroom in the big, wide world. Shaun M. Jooste is no George, he’s more comparable as the Mark Zuckerberg of the literary world. What started out as a simple idea grew into an amazing enterprise. A rollercoaster ride, from small idea to possible global notoriety. Shaun is a self-published author who operates his own independent publishing company, Celenic Earth Publications. To date he has published a number of novels and anthologies. Most of which are under Celenic Earth Publications company label. In April 2017, Shaun M Jooste, a writer from Cape Town, South Africa, applied to Guinness World Records to officially attempt to break the existing record of 50 contributing writers in an anthology of short stories.
Shaun's application to Guinness World Records challenged the original record holder by stating that he could double the number of contributing writers in an anthology that he would then publish. He created social media accounts at the beginning of July to create awareness of his challenge and to attract the attention of perspective writers. Within only a few weeks, Shaun had over 100 writers asking to join his online writers group all wanting to take part. This challenge has been an amazing demonstration of the power of social media, bringing together a community of writers all with a common goal in mind and giving each other the support and motivation to challenge themselves in the process. The deadline for submissions closed as of midnight 31st August 2017. Shaun can officially confirm that Celenic Earth Publications have exceeded 100 writers that have been accepted into the publication for ‘CEA Greatest Anthology Written’. C.E.P. has accepted submissions from writers all over the world – SOUTH AFRICA, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, HUNGARY, NIGERIA, MEXICO, BOLIVIA and SWITZERLAND.
One of those writers is Lynette Greenfield, Author, who submitted a short story called, THE SINGLE MISTAKE.
Shaun is now in the process of compiling, editing and formatting all submissions ready for the official book launch on 30th September 2017. Celenic Earth Publications with then be holding an official launch event in Cape Town, South Africa, where the publication will be authenticated and verified. This rule, along with many more, is a stipulation given by Guinness Word Records themselves. The biggest part of the challenge in order to achieve the award is that 1000 copies of the book must be sold (500 of which may be in electronic format) before the attempt is deemed as officially record breaking. The general public are already able to place pre-orders, sponsors and donations via the Celenic Earth Publications website mentioned below. All orders taken up to and including 20th September 2017 will earn the purchaser a named sponsor affiliation with The Greatest Anthology Written on the Guinness World Record database
By Candice Mellor, Marketing and Social Media Manager.
