#3 Going for the record

A world record attempt at the most authors simultaneously reading from their own work was the drawcard for the first ever Sunshine Coast Authors Book Fair.

2011 Sunshine Coast Author Fair

• Maroochydore, QLD Australia. November 12, 2011

New World Record - 45 authors simultaneously reading their from their own books!

The full day event provided a high quality showcase of the local writing talent found on Queensland's fabulous Sunshine Coast along with presentations on topics such as writing, editing and publishing and the opportunity to network and meet with fellow writers in a relaxed environment. If you want to know what 45 authors reading from their own books for 2 minutes sounds like, then watch the YouTube video below and see for yourself.

A gimmick or slick piece of marketing is often all that stands between being noticed, and not being noticed at all. It was Andy Warhol who in 1968 said that in the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes. However, on a Saturday afternoon in November 2011, a group of local authors gathered in Maroochydore, Australia for the first-ever Sunshine Coast Author Fair and prepared to write themselves into the Guinness Book of World Records. And all it took was two minutes. Now I know it doesn't compare with the Sunshine Coast's own Jessica Watson who in 2010, and only three days before her seventeenth birthday, became the youngest person to sail a boat non-stop and unassisted around the world, (even though the route she ended up taking was not recognized officially by the World Speed Sailing Record Council). But it does illustrate my point, and that of Andy Warhol.

We live in a world that is saturated with reality TV stars, aspiring  pop-stars, actors, athletes of all types and even authors. It seems it is possible to be world-famous for fifteen minutes after all. Standing among the crowd of 45 authors in an officially recognized world-record attempt to simultaneously read from our own work for a period of two minutes, was perhaps all that was needed for a group of local authors from the Sunshine Coast to get noticed. Sure the hard work was already done for each and every person who stood ready in front of the cameras. But if it took two years to write, edit and have our books published, then making ourselves available to be a part of such a unique gimmick took only two minutes of our time by comparison. With the mileage (and official letter of recognition) still to come from the event, perhaps that was time well spent.