The Naked Chef last night joined forces with Harry Potter and Archie Jones, the nowhere man of Zadie Smith's version of Cricklewood Broadway, by taking three of the first WH Smith book prizes to be chosen by popular vote.

The books won awards worth £5,000 for their authors - Jamie Oliver, JK Rowling and Ms Smith - after coming top in a poll which attracted 65,000 votes in high streets and on the internet.

Another best-selling writer, Maeve Binchy won the fiction prize in a contest which, while advertised as unprecedentedly democratic, confirmed what the book trade has known for a century: that the public tends to go for titles which are being most heavily promoted in bookshops and the media.

Ms Rowling won the children's book of the year award for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Ms Smith took the new talent prize for White Teeth and Jamie Oliver the home and leisure prize for The Return of the Naked Chef. Ms Binchy won the fiction prize for her novel, Scarlet Feather.

Simon Schama's A History of Britain came top in the general knowledge section and David Starkey's Elizabeth was first in biography and autobiography. Cynthia Crossen's The Rich And How They Got that Way took the business prize and Bill Bryson's Down Under, the travel award.

The WH Smith literary prize, which has been running for 43 years, was considered too complex to be left to open vote. This award was given by a judging panel to Philip Roth's novel, The Human Stain.

Smith's chief executive, Richard Handover, was delighted by the results at last night's award ceremony. "People have welcomed the opportunity to participate in the voting, and it has been extremely interesting to see their perspective on which books they believe to be the best.

"Because they were offered a choice of voting methods, adults and children could find a process to suit them," he said.

However, voters were not given the chance to nominate their own choice of books. They were asked to pick from shortlists of five titles chosen by judges. A third of voters used the internet.

Voters showed a degree of independence by rejecting Joanna Trollope's novel Marrying the Mistress, the bookies' evens favourite for the fiction prize. William Hill had rated Ms Binchy's novel as second favourite.

The new voting opportunity was taken up by only a small fraction of WH Smith's 7m weekly shoppers. It was introduced because the company considered traditional judging methods "elitist". But the results leave it open to the criticism that it merely produces a mirror of the best-seller charts.