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Not content with a New York Times chart-topping novel in The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, author Neil Gaiman might also have scooped a world record for the number of books signed in a single sitting—though it’s not an accolade he particularly wants.

As the US leg of his marathon—and  last—book promotional tour comes to a close this weekend in Cambridge, Mass (he goes off to the San Diego Comic Con after that, then Canada, before returning to the UK in August), Gaiman has signed upwards of 40,000 books.

It might well be enough to put him into the Guinness Book of Records. The most books signed by one author in a single session is 4,649 by Sammy Lee of Hong Kong, who signed his book Autopilot Leadership Model in China on January 19, 2013. The Guinness people had a Twitter exchange with Gaiman last month after he tweeted that he’d signed 1,200 books and someone commented that it might be a record.

Guinness World Records responded:

Most books signed by author in a single session is 4,649! If you’d like to beat it sometime Neil, let us know! :)

Gaiman replied:

Scary. I’ve done more than that sometimes but it’s horrible.

As impressive as the 1,200 was—and you can see a wonderful video of it (thankfully speeded up) on the Headline books sub-site Men Who Stare At Books, followers of Gaiman’s Twitter account (@neilhimself) will have seen his regular updates throughout the signing tour detailing ever greater numbers of autographed items.

So has he broken the record? Gaiman says, “Many of these signings were at about 2,500 copies of Ocean & another 2,000+ other things. Perhaps this is madness that shouldn’t be celebrated!“

No one who has stood in line waiting for Gaiman’s autograph—sometimes until 1 or  2 AM on the current tour—will doubt his commitment, charm and endurance, and his willingness to chat and sign his older works. He would be the last one to complain, of course, but the tour has not been without its scars.

“Am now icing my forearm after signings because it’s swelling and it hurts,” he says, insisting, “The people are lovely but I’ll be glad when the signings are done.”

Fact-fans among you might want to know just what tools Gaiman’s using for this mammoth signing tour. His weapon of choice is the Pilot Custom 823 Fountain Pen, which retails for a cool $360. But as Gaiman tweeted on July 8:

If you are doing a big signing tour, & signing (so far) about 27,000 signatures, having one pen that copes & writes pretty is wonderful.

And close study of his Twitter account even reveals his favourite inks—a purple Noodlers Black Swan English Rose he used in Atlanta and a red Mont Blanc Bordeaux, a gift from students at the Clarion West writing workshop Gaiman recently attended.

While Gaiman might not particularly want the world record, even if it turns out he’s bust it, the honour of signing most books in a single session is one that seems to be sought after.

Canadian writer Ryan North tweeted in June: “I signed 4340 books yesterday alone! That’s over twice the previous world record” and two years ago UK former glamour model Katie Price made a bid to break the existing world record when she held a signing for her latest novel The Comeback Girl in Leeds.

Although the artist formerly known as Jordan said she “came close” to breaking the then record of 1,951 held by the Russian ex-World Champion in chess Anatoli Karpov since 2006, she ultimately didn’t, although she might have trumped Neil Gaiman’s standard outfit of black T-shirt and jeans by turning up in a sparkly bra, a gold catsuit inscribed with lines from her new book, and a belt made out of miniature versions of the cover.

 


David Barnett is an author and journalist whose novel Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl is released by Tor in the US and Snowbooks in the UK this September.

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David Barnett

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Journalist and author, first book in alt.history/steam punk series, Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl, released by Tor in September 2013. For more see www.davidbarnett.wordpress.co or follow on Twitter @davidmbarnett David Barnett is a British author and award-winning journalist. Born in the North West of England in 1970, he has had a multi-decade career in newspapers, working currently as a Multimedia Content Manager (which covers a multitude of journalistic sins) at The Telegraph & Argus in Bradford, West Yorkshire and also works for The Guardian, where he writes on a regular basis about books and literary matters, reviews books for the Independent on Sunday, and has had features published in magazines such as Wired. He is married to Claire, also an award-winning journalist, and they have two children, Charlie and Alice. They share their home with two cats, Kali and Shiva, and a monstrous pile of books and comics which are largely confined to the attic but which David tries to sneak downstairs at regular intervals.
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