TwitterTitters

Entrepreneurs are funnier than accountants - here's why

LAST week I was delighted to be asked to be a judge in a jokes competition! Now there's something I hadn't expected.

Dan Martin from Accounting Web sent me oodles of jokes and asked me to pick my favourites. Some had been submitted by businesspeople and some by accountants. Cunningly, he never told me which were which.

You can read the results here. Thanks Dan and thanks to all the jokers who took part.

I'll be slaying our accountant with most of them at our next meeting. Especially as he now charges a fixed fee rather than by the hour.

Some cracking reviews for TwitterTitters

THE last few days have had some tough moments, to the point I have wondered if all this work has been worth it.

There've been some inevitable negative comments and one or two commentators going as far to say that TwitterTitters is a complete load of pants (not their words) or that we're fraudsters set on keeping any money for ourselves.

It's easy in the cold light of day to bat these comments off. As an author, I know you can't please all of the people all of the time. But when I first read them I have to admit they did smart a little. We put this book together in under a month to raise cash for a charity that's saving children's lives - and by last Friday we were, quite frankly knackered.

The blogger who slated the book did so without reading it but said he thought stuff by the two 'name' comedians involved was a load of shit (only without the comic flair of Catherine Tate's nan) so he wouldn't be buying it while the tweeter who accused us of being dodgy ignored my suggestions that she should check her facts and accused another team member of "f****** spamming." Nice.

So, with that in mind, it's rather encouraging to remind ourselves that people have actually liked it and the hard work of the many people who have helped - you know who you are - has been worth it. Even if we do need to shift some more copies. Actually it isn't the reviews that make it worth it, but the fact that just £5 raised can help Comic Relief make a difference and for that, guess what, I'm proud. Thanks.

I've just set up a page of reviews on this blog, but here are the ones I have featured so far:

Telly advertising favourites strut their stuff for Comic Relief

HERE'S another great Comic Relief ad for anyone who happens to be reading this and has managed to miss it so far.

TwitterTitters: Where do we go from here?

WE put together our Twitter-powered book of new comedy writing, including exclusive new writing by Dave Spikey with the aim of raising cash for Comic Relief.

Our fundraising agreement is until April 30, so we'd like to keep going until then in the hope of raising more money. I'm going to upload some of the pieces that were submitted for the book and didn't make the final cut for one reason or another, but maily because we had too many blog posts.

We'd love it if more people could support us by buying the book - it's only £4.99 to download or £9 for the book to be delivered to your door.

Thank you again to everyone who has blogged, tweeted or written about the book and for all the fantastic feedback. Now we just/still need people to buy the book to enjoy some cracking new writing and contribute to the wonderful total already recieved by Comic Relief.

Red noses do the cute Cadbury's ad

WELL it must have been easier than the gorilla. Hope you enjoy, if you hadn't seen it already.

Okay, so it's Red Nose Day, have you bought your copy of TwitterTitters yet?

THIS is a book we put together in under a month through Twitter. It's a collection of new comedy writing chosen by an esteemed panel of judges found through Twitter, by writers who tweet.

Suffice to say it has been one hell of an experience and at this moment in time, it's not one I would consider repeating in a million years, but please if you can spare a fiver, do check us out.

You can buy the book here.

Also, if you are that way inclined, please do help us continue to spread the word. We've had some amazing publicity and some wonderful celebrity endorsements, but we want to make as big a difference as possible and that aint gonna happen if we don't sell more books.*

You can also show your support by blogging or tweeting about us, using the link below or why not change your Facebook status to:

(Your name here) says read something funny for money & raise cash for Comic Relief http://tinyurl.com/cr7v8d

If you do tweet about us, please use the hashtags #twittertitters and #rednoseday where possible.

Thanks everyone.

*I'm sorry if I sound like I'm coming over all Bob Geldof, but not half as sorry as I would be if I'd have written coming all over Bob Geldof.

The Fry effect - thanks everyone for checking us out

AT around 5.50pm yesterday as I sat outside my daughters' keyboard lesson in a car park in Wednesfield I noticed something that made me whoop like a demented fool.

The people waiting for their cod and battered sausages in the nearby chippy's queue were most befuddled, let me tell you.

Anyway, thanks to the joint efforts of some of the TwitterTitters writers in grabbing his attention, national treasure, comedy genius and all round nice bloke Stephen Fry had pointed his followers in the direction of our attempt to raise cash for Comic Relief.

So what happened then? All of a sudden, mentioning of TwitterTitters on Twitter went into overdrive and we had around 8,800 hits on our blog before midnight.

Hits building on our Lulu page, please buy this book in aid of Comic Relief

WE put together our Twitter-powered book of new comedy writing, including exclusive new writing by Dave Spikey in under a month and it's fair to say it has been an exciting - but exhausting - process.

Now we need more people to support us by buying the book - it's only £4.99 to download or £9 for the book to be delivered to your door.

Media coverage has been excellent and lots of kind souls have been tweeting and re-tweeting about it. Latest pieces have been published in Hold the Front Page and the Birmingham Post as well as about 20 blog posts from across t'internet so I'll update those when I can, thanks everyone!

Please, as we approach Red Nose Day, we'd love it if you could splash out a few quid to help us raise some money for Comic Relief and give yourself a good laugh into the bargain!

Thank you again to everyone who has blogged, tweeted or written about the book and for all the fantastic feedback.

I'm particularly proud of the fact that my friend and business partner Carol said she laughed so much at Dave Spikey's story that she almost cried - and she had to read it down the phone to her mother-in-law! I was amazed as it would take more than that for me to ring mine...

You can buy the book here.

And you can follow our Twitter feed here.

Is @stephenfry a cult leader? Spotlight on a TwitterTitters story

THERE'S been more than 2,500 views of our page on Lulu, selling the TwitterTitters book to raise money for Comic Relief.

With less than a week before Red Nose Day, I'm hoping some more publicity can kick in and sales can start to pick up to match those views.

But in the meantime, as we have concentrated on the backing of Dave Spikey and Nat Coombs to gain attention, we thought it was high time we highlighted some of the other, frankly quite brilliant, writing included.

First off is a piece on Stephen Fry being arrested on suspicion of being a cult leader all because of his humungous Twitter following.

One reviewer has already described this as 'inspired' and the judges loved it.

It's the work of Cian Weeresinghe, who manages satire site Techchuff from a cubicle in the gents at eBay.

Pictured: The alleged cult's headquarters.
Coming soon: Garralous and Gregorius Cretensky, the only known pair of conjoined twins to have been linked by a toenail.

Chelsey: OMG! How an online sensation is changing the face of comedy

THE foreword to TwitterTitters is written by Nat Coombs. His comedy Chelsey: OMG! has taken Bebo by storm gaining more than two million hits since it launched last year. It's fab.

The characters interact with their audience and storylines are influenced by input from viewers. I think that's brilliant. Nat says: "As a kid, I would have loved to have been able to wite to Sam Malone in Cheers and have him respond.

"Word of mouth is also very important and the internet is a very transparent barometer for the show's success."

Go Nat! You can read more about how Chesley: OMG! is changing the face of comedy in the foreword to TwitterTitters. Buy the book here.