In retrospect, I shouldn’t be surprised. In fact, I should’ve remembered!
Guinness has a 12-week waiting period in place for record-attempters, unless you’re willing and able to pay $800 to shave that down to five days…and that’s a little out of my budget, to be honest. It’s not an entirely impossible fee, but it’s not what I’d call a practical use of my finances.
I feel like I’m better off using that time to publicize that this attempt has begun!
I don’t fault Guinness for this, by the way. I have no doubt that their staff has to deal with a lot of other people trying to make their way into the record books, including a bunch of narcissists with specious claims informed mostly by their own egos. Under the circumstances, I think it’s great that they can offer an application with the reasonable fee of $0.
Guinness does ask that I use the pricier option if I plan to make commercial use of the record for self-promotion. That gives me a little pause. I mean, I think it’d be foolish to say that I’d never try to turn a buck from the recognition that Guinness confers. But I think such commercialization is minor compared to what others would attempt. I’d mostly just use it as a point on the resume to draw some interest to the next thing I do.
The Ubercross Abecedaria is available on the website for free, and that’s where it will remain, because I don’t believe in locking record-holding achievements away from the public.
Now, that’s the only possible sticking point. Guinness also asks for a non-revocable license to use what I submit to them. If a snippet of the Ubercross Abecedaria shows up in one of their self-promotional videos or (dare to dream!) the cover of the Guinness Book of World Records 2025, that’d do my heart good. But if Guinness insists that I have to take the Ubercross Abecedaria off the internet in order to claim the record, well, that could be a problem. See paragraph above.
However, I note that Emoji Dick, the emoji “translation” of Moby Dick, is both a record-holder and available online, and there is a clause that permits me to withdraw until further arrangements are made. So I’m proceeding with caution here.
Application sent!
Tomorrow: Accusation in a mirror (when wordplay gets grim).
A non-revocable license for use is not the same as exclusive rights, of course.
Guinness sure doesn't own the exclusive rights to several iterations of the smallest comic book, for example. I mean, I guess they don't.
- http://disneycomicsrandomness.blogspot.com/2018/11/guinness-world-record-smallest-comic.html
Good luck!
This will be the largest solvable crossword?