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F E AT U R E<br />
By the book<br />
LICHFIELD MUM AMY BURTON’S NEW VENTURE, SLATER ROAD BOOK CLUB, AIMS TO HELP<br />
CONNECT READERS WITH BOOKS THEY’LL LOVE. AMY NORBURY DISCOVERS MORE<br />
We all have our favourite authors, the ones we turn<br />
to when we need a book fix and the ones we get most<br />
excited over when a new tale lands. But when we run<br />
out of our top picks, it can be difficult to find another<br />
author which fills the gap.<br />
Lichfield mum-of-one Amy Burton has turned<br />
book recommendations into a business, thanks<br />
to her Slater Road Book Club. Offering tailored<br />
subscriptions which see a new, carefully chosen<br />
book drop through your letterbox each month,<br />
the book club aims to open readers up to a world<br />
of new works which they are sure to love. From<br />
contemporary to classic, fiction and non-fiction, Amy<br />
offers something for everyone.<br />
“Think along the lines of magazine subscriptions,<br />
but with books,” explains Amy. “And whereas with<br />
magazine subscriptions you send out the same<br />
magazine to everyone, with the book club I send out<br />
different books to every subscriber, depending on<br />
what they like to read.<br />
“You can get sock subscriptions, flower subscriptions,<br />
really subscriptions for everything nowadays, so I<br />
thought why not books? I think it’s lovely to have<br />
a good book which is nicely wrapped sent to you;<br />
Kindles are obviously a really popular way of<br />
reading nowadays, but I think people still like to have<br />
books.”<br />
A lifelong bookworm, 34-year-old Amy studied<br />
publishing with English at Loughborough University<br />
but never put her skills in the field to proper use -<br />
until now.<br />
AMY IS A SELF-CONFESSED<br />
BOOKWORM<br />
AMY BURTON RUNS SLATER<br />
ROAD BOOK CLUB<br />
“The only reason I didn’t pursue a career in<br />
publishing was because it meant moving to London<br />
- which, in hindsight, I probably would have loved -<br />
and jobs were very difficult to come by, so I went into<br />
sales,” she says.<br />
It was when Amy’s daughter Belle, now two, came<br />
along, that she started looking at putting her degree<br />
to good use with a new business venture. Slater Road<br />
Book Club launched in July last year, and Amy is<br />
thrilled to be able to share her passion for reading<br />
and discovering new authors with her subscribers.<br />
“This allows me to work at home, managing it all<br />
myself, and do something I’m passionate about and<br />
which uses my expertise,” says Amy, who’s married<br />
to Dan.<br />
“I love researching and investigating the different<br />
genres of books; for example if someone particularly<br />
enjoys sports book, which isn’t a genre I’d normally<br />
read myself, I get online, do plenty of research and<br />
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