Death By Deadline: Finding Humour in the Fine Print is the first joke book dedicated to the wild, frustrating, and oddly hilarious world of bids, tenders, and RFPs. Packed with over 300 original jokes, this collection shines a light on the shared struggles of proposal professionals everywhere — from compliance matrices that go ignored, to SMEs who vanish when you need them most, to evaluators who ask the same question four different ways just to test your sanity.

This isn’t just comedy for comedy’s sake. Written by Bid Consultant Emma L Orr, Death By Deadline uses humour as reverse psychology. Years of experience have shown her that people often ignore best practice advice — but laugh at a joke, and suddenly the truth behind it hits home. By poking fun at the ridiculous parts of the RFP process, this book encourages readers to reflect on how things could be done better (without the usual lectures).

Whether you’re a:

• Bid Manager juggling deadlines and stakeholders

• Proposal Writer trying to align 12 authors into one voice

• Sales or Business Development Lead navigating the tender minefield

• Or simply someone who has lived through “track changes trauma”

…this book will make you laugh, groan, and most importantly, feel seen.

What you’ll find inside:

• 300+ jokes and one-liners covering every corner of the proposal lifecycle

• Relatable humour that exposes the madness of deadlines, SMEs, compliance, procurement, and portals

• A lighthearted way to connect with colleagues, kick off team meetings, or simply survive another submission cycle

This is the perfect desk companion for anyone in the profession. Share it with your team, leave it in the office kitchen, or pull it out when the next deadline looms — because sometimes the only way to get through the pressure is to laugh at it.

Death By Deadline is more than a joke book. It’s a rallying cry for bid and proposal people everywhere: we may not control the deadline, but we can control how we laugh about it.

AVAILABLE NOW in both paperback and e-book, click the image for further details.

For BULK ORDERS of 10 copies or more, get in touch for a 50% discount. This product would be great for Team Days, Learning & Development, Mentoring or even special occasions such as Christmas or Birthdays.