WORLD RECORD

By all accounts, my book has set a new world record.  

Everything, Briefly surpassed, by 50.0%, the last Guinness record for manuscript rejections—specifically, rejections before acceptance. My book had 243 rejections vs. Guinness' 162 (which is author Dick Wimmer). While there are anecdotal accounts of people having received more rejections than this, there has not been anyone until now who could prove it.

Some perspective. The bar is very high for acceptance of a metaphysics, so that rejections do not reflect much on the caliber of the work. By the time a publisher accepts a metaphysics, it has to be an exceptional book. In this case, the book itself reveals the vast complexity of getting it to production. Three months after publication, it has had all five-star reviews.

More details appear below this image (a record of rejections).

 

Additional rejections in 2018-2019, recorded by hand:

 

014 SHAMBHALA PUBLISHER REJECTION 14 MARCH

013 BROADVIEW PUBLISHER REJECTION 22 NOVEMBER

012 CHICAGO PUBLISHER REJECTION 27 NOVEMBER

011 POLITY PUBLISHER REJECTION 24 NOVEMBER

010 FRASER ROSS AGENCY DEFAULT REJECTION 17 NOVEMBER

009 FELICITY BRYAN AGENCY REJECTION 13 NOVEMBER

008 JOHNSON & ALCOCK AGENCY REJECTION 18 NOVEMBER

007 MCDERMID AGENCY DEFAULT REJECTION 7 NOVEMBER

006 DAVID BLACK AGENCY REJECTION 5 MARCH

005 ICM AGENCY REJECTION 9 NOVEMBER

004 LEVINE GREENBERG ROSTAN AGENCY DEFAULT REJECTION 29 NOVEMBER

003 BLAKE FRIEDMAN AGENCY REJECTION 13 DECEMBER

002 ANNETTE GREEN AGENCY REJECTION 16 NOVEMBER

001 FRANCES GOLDIN AGENCY REJECTION 13 NOVEMBER

000 ERROR CAMBRIDGE PUBLISHER REJECTION 2 NOVEMBER

 

Over seven years, then, I presented Everything, Briefly at least 715 times to agents and publishers, before Wipf & Stock finally accepted it ("at least" because some records may be lost). Out of 715 submissions:

 

• 428 were no-replies (rejections, really, but we shall not count these)

• Three replies broke agenting rules

• This leaves 284 replies which, in one way or another, turned the book down

• There were 199 explicit rejections (for example, ”I’m afraid it’s not for me”).

• There were 46 default rejections (for example, “If we are interested, we shall contact you within 10 days”)

• Another 43 claimed an error on my part (for example, “I am currently closed to submissions”)

 

I make this 243 rejections (199 explicit, and 44 default), before acceptance. This figure is way beyond the last Guinness record. Put it this way. I am putting out the challenge: prove that anyone received more rejections than this. Until then, this is far and away a new world record.