In two weeks and 314 tweets, the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter feed has earned more than 43,000 followers. Now, the creators have signed with an unnamed agent.
The website pays comic homage to “The AP Stylebook,” the metaphorical Bible for resolving all journalistic style issues. Founded by 31-year-old Mark Hale and 28-year-old Ken Lowery, the comic site specializes in pithy bits of fake journalistic wisdom like: “Do not use ‘Whoomp! There it is!’ unless it actually is there” and “To denote air quotes, ‘use quotes.'”
Here’s more from co-creator Hale, from a Media Nation interview: “We and the Bureau Chiefs are currently pulling together a sample chapter as part of a book proposal. We’ve been approached by three agents, and have finally signed on with one … Other than that, we’re going to continue trying to make people laugh for free on the Internet. That’s where the real money is these days, after all.”
(UPDATE: In an interview with MediaShift, Lowery identifies Kate McKean of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency as their agent of choice. McKean is the agent for several bloggers with print aspirations, including the authors of TheLongThread.com, UnecessaryQuotes.com, and the I Can Has Cheezburger crew.)