Wigan author makes dramatic ap-PIE-al to prevent books being pulped!

Martin Tarbuck, 50, received an email from his distributor in October, saying over 300 copies of his 2014 publication, 'Life of Pies', would be getting pulped unless he could sell them by the end of the month.

Clearly crust-fallen, Tarbuck went out on to social media to share his plight - and received more than 180 orders in just two weeks.

That secured him an extension until Christmas, which will determine whether the rest get pulped or collected for resale.

"I’d written a couple of books about football in the past, well Wigan Athletic, and they sold a few thousand copies, mainly in the Wigan area," said Tarbuck.

"I figured that writing a book about pie-eating would be much more popular, given there’s millions of pie fans up and down the country.

"However, even though most people who read the book absolutely loved it, I had a lot of bad luck when it came out...shipping issues, a lost pen drive with the manuscript on, and the BBC also cancelled a documentary they did with me as it coincided with the Brexit vote.

"It was a bit of a vanity project, but also an issue I thought people would genuinely want to know the answer to: Where can I get the best pie from?

"So, I travelled the country eating 400 pies, and put 314 in the book, with pictures. I self published and the book came to around 380 pages.

"I thought it would fly off the shelves, but the problem is I’m terrible at marketing and social media, so I’ve barely made an attempt to sell it over the last few years, until I got the recent email.

"Where I’m at, is that I picked up half of the book, and have around 50-60 with me at home. If I sell them, then I’ll probably arrange a collection of the remaining 160 copies from the warehouse and save them from pulping.

"I’m only selling them at cost price, so it’s not about making money, more about recovering the money I lost at the time, and also saving the books.

"It might make a quirky Christmas present or a 'Secret Santa' present to the pie lover in your life.

"I’ve taken a lot of light-hearted stick from my mates by going public over the pulping, but I’ve also taken a lot of heart from the fact so many people want to support it.

"It seems loads of people still love physical books, and really don’t want to see them mashed to pieces.

"I’m the same, I still buy way more books, magazines and fanzines than I ever have time to read.

"I just love the effort that people put into them, and taking some time out to read something in print really is a gift.’

The story is not over yet for our hero, though.

"As if I’ve not learnt my lesson, I did start work on a follow up a year or so back, and it is half finished," he added.

"I always thought that, similar to the Good Beer Guide, there’s never been a Good Pie Guide equivalent.

"When I looked back at all the small, independent bakers, butchers and pie makers who featured in Life of Pies, around one in three of them have ceased trading now, such as Poole’s and Grimshaws in Wigan.

"However, there’s also loads of new bakers who have started up in lockdown and have continued to make a success of it, baking gourmet pies with innovative flavours, such as Baldy’s Pies.

"Whittle’s of Pemberton have also made a comeback, with their famous doner kebab pies, and I feel like there should be a directory of all the best pie makers, whether they’ve been going one year or a hundred years.

"So it would be lovely to do a follow up, but I guess I need to get rid of the last of these books first!!”

* 'Life of Pies' is available for £4.99 plus postage and packaging from www.lifeofpies.co.uk