Publishers in the UK have a lot to be grateful to Richard and Judy for.  “Since their book club started three or four years ago it has totally reinvented the UK reading market,” says WH Smith Travel Group fiction book buyer Matthew Bates.  “People are talking about books again.  Whatever you may think of Richard and Judy themselves, at least people are reading.”

Summer is the busiest time for buying books – even those of us who normally barely have time to read the back of a cereal box are buying juicy tomes to read while stretched out in the sunshine on our summer breaks.  But when we are mulling over the selection at the book stand near the entrance to the airport bookshop how many of us take the time to ponder how the rows of books lined up seductively for us to purchase actually make their way onto those shelves?

It is people like affable 36-year-old Matthew Bates that help us make these – at times seemingly life-changing – decisions.  “That is one of the most satisfying aspects to my job – I like helping to make people’s choices of what to read easier.  It is very rewarding to see customers enjoy the selection I’ve offered them.”

Starting his WH Smith career nearly 20 years ago as a shy young sales assistant, Matthew steadily worked his way through promotions to department manager of books, where he was then faced with the dilemma of advancing his career in the more conventional way of becoming branch manager of his own store – or remaining with his first true love of books.  “As much as people thought I was daft for not choosing to run my own store,” he explains, “I knew staying with books was where I wanted to be.”

After managing the book departments of six major London stores, culminating in a position at WH Smith Travel Group’s largest (in volume of sales) book department in Victoria Station, Matthew was asked if he would be interested in moving to head office to undertake the role of book buyer for the group.  After four years in non-fiction, five years ago he moved to his current position of book buyer for fiction for all WH Smith rail station and airport stores in the UK .

The WH Smith Travel Group book market is closer to the customer that buys in Borders or Waterstones, rather than in WH Smith high-street stores.  “Our main demographics are either business people who go through the stations and airports nearly every day and want a satisfying read for their journey, or people on their way to holidays who want a fabulous book to unwind with,” Matthew says.  “I know it might sound overly dramatic but I do feel a lot of responsibility in making recommendations as to what people read.  Some people only get a chance to enjoy one book a year while on holiday so I want to make sure I have made the right decisions for them.”

When selecting which books to buy each month, it is much more than a matter of browsing forward release lists from publishers.  “From four to six months pre-release the publisher’s representative will present all their books for that month,” he explains.  “We discuss their planned promotions– if any – for each title, whether they plan to concentrate their marketing on Tube ads or radio or whatever else they have in mind.  Other things to keep in mind are whether there will be a film tie-in or whether the major newspapers are planning advance reviews of the book.”

With more than 1500 new titles presented to him each month – but a buying limit of only 300, the buying process is very selective.  “It is important that publishers have good marketing planned.  That can often influence my decision to take on their title.”  And it seems you can, in fact, judge a book by its cover: “A good jacket is vital.  If a publisher presents me with a cover treatment I don’t think is impressive I will give feedback to that effect.  But I don’t criticise jackets just for the fun of it – I want every book to succeed.”

Although there is no magic formula to guarantee success of a new book, Matthew admits there are quite a few “no-brainers” that he will always put on the shelves.  “Ian Rankin, Martina Cole, Danielle Steel – there are a lot of big names that will always sell.  My challenge for those titles is to increase our market share of sales against our competitors.  We will often do half-price offers in the week of release, sometimes in combination with backlist promotions to continue to raise the profile of the author.  Or we will try to do in-store signings, which are always hugely popular.”

It is easy to imagine Matthew spends his working day tucked away in an office with his nose buried in the middle of novels but this is not the case: “The job is not as introspective as people might suspect.  A lot of it is very outward facing.  I like to think that as a buyer I am not only a representative of WH Smith but of the UK publishing industry as a whole.”  As a part of this representation Matthew is often invited to film premieres and publishing industry events, and recently went to Venice with a selection of publishers and fellow buyers to celebrate the release of author Erica James’ latest novel.  He is regularly asked to write a book review column for industry magazine The Bookseller, and is also invited to sit on judging panels for book awards – most recently the Romantic Novel Award (RNA) where he was also required to make a speech.  “I am always happy when asked to be a judge, especially for the RNA as romance novels are often given a hard time in the UK .”

While not entirely his cup of tea – in his spare time he prefers to indulge in his passion for historical fiction – he believes that romance novels, along with books of all genres, should not be subject to disdain.  “There should never be any snobbery when deciding what you want to read.  Don’t read something just because of what other people might think – read what you want to and because you enjoy it.”  In fact, Matthew thinks everyone should carry their reading material with real pride: “We should carry our books proudly, no matter what they are.  In fact, I would love it if people paraded their paperbacks around like a Gucci handbag.”

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