Leon Shimkin Helped Create The Book Publishing Industry

Leon Shimkin started working at the newly founded publisher Simon & Schuster in 1924. He made $25 a week as a bookkeeper when he was 17 — but ended up owning part of the company and revolutionizing the industry.

Shimkin (1907-1988) had just completed his first year at New York University when he joined Simon & Schuster. He continued to study in the evenings.

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But the kid’s creative ideas would one day help make book publishing a major industry.

“Older publishers were already established and satisfied with their careers, catering to a relatively small audience of readers,” said Joseph S. Moore, author of “How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice that Worked (& Didn’t).”

“But young people like Shimkin realized everything had gotten bigger in the 1910s and '20s, from the federal government to the cities, and he wanted to fill the need of those willing to take greater risks and opportunities, from the stock market to their personal lives, regardless of the how the overall economy was doing,” Moore told IBD.

Score Big Wins Like Leon Shimkin

Shimkin’s most notable success was persuading Dale Carnegie to work with him to write and publish “How to Win Friends and Influence People” in 1936.

The Library of Congress ranks the title as the seventh most important book in American history. It also gave hope to the public in the depths of the Great Depression. The book sold hundreds of millions of copies then and continues to be popular worldwide today.

Think Outside The Book Like Leon Shimkin Did

Shimkin was an ambitious young man from a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn. Even before he joined Simon & Schuster he had worked as a bookkeeper at Boni & Lightright, a trade book publisher.

In “Simon and Schuster: A Century of Publishing” Julianna Haubner notes that founders Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln “Max” Schuster began to think of Shimkin as the third “S.”

They called him their “golden nugget” because he kept coming up with new ways to increase the company’s incremental income and save money.

They appreciated hustlers: Simon had been a piano salesman. And Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine. The two pooled their savings to start a company to publish crossword puzzles (which Simon’s aunt loved).

Go Beyond The Expected

Shimkin worked out a licensing program that allowed newspapers to reprint their crossword puzzles daily for the first time. He also planned to sell the rights to turn Simon & Schuster’s most exciting books into movies.

Ultimately, Shimkin also successfully lobbied the IRS to adopt a new rule that helped publishers. Publishers would not pay taxes on earnings reinvested to create new books. And by the end of his first year he was named secretary-treasurer. A state law insisted he could not use the title until he was 21.

“Shimkin, like the founders, embodied the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation,” Haubner said.

Focus On A Specialty Like Shimkin

Most book publishers, up until this time, usually signed up authors with planned manuscripts. Simon & Schuster, on the other hand, tried to exploit current fads and trends by coming up with their own ideas. The company would then hire writers to create a book. They called this planned publishing.

Serving effectively as the company’s business manager, Shimkin began coming up with ideas for self-help and self-improvement books.

“The times created a market for those seeking to better themselves and their families in every way, not just preparing for job opportunities,” said Moore, a historian at Kenneshaw State University. “And just as young people knew that television would be replaced by short-form video, Shimkin realized that novels and traditional nonfiction hardcover books that were expensive left an audience of the majority to be served with what they desperately wanted.”

Shimkin knew he had to find the talent and expertise that could prepare them to enter the modern world.

Make Your Experts Household Names

Enter J.K. Lasser — an accountant. Shimkin tapped Lasser to publish the first edition of his now-famous guide to federal income tax law in 1939.

Lasser was a perfect partner for a new book. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. in industrial engineering, so he understood many businesses. He worked for a top accounting firm before opening J.K. Lasser & Co. in Manhattan in 1923. Lasser had done work for Simon & Schuster and 250 other clients in the publishing industry.

Simon & Schuster published the first edition of Lasser’s guide to federal income tax, “Your Income Tax,” in 1939 and it sold 23,000 copies. When Shimkin saw the book, he put promotion behind it. The book turned into one of Simon & Schuster’s most profitable titles, with the 1946 edition selling seven million copies.

Each edition continues to sell well and makes it one of the most popular titles in the company’s history. “Lasser is to taxation what Einstein is to relativity,” said Schuster.

Spot A Blockbuster Like Shimkin

Shimkin constantly searched for blockbusters. And one discovery changed the world of self-help publishing.

Dale Carnegie was a prominent speaker during Shimkin’s career. Carnegie told the thousands of people who filled auditoriums how to apply his ideas on improving their public speaking, whether for business, church, their community, or just with friends. Shimkin was invited to hear one of his presentations in 1934.

Carnegie’s tips impressed Shimkin — but also his ability to explain concepts in understandable ways. And the audience’s enthusiastic response to Carnegie’s lessons told Shimkin there was a massive opportunity.

Shimkin approached Carnegie after the speech. He told Carnegie that instead of just reaching thousands, he could have a worldwide audience of millions if he published a book.

Carnegie said he didn’t have time to write a book. But Shimkin offered to have a stenographer type up some of his lectures. Carnegie could read the initial draft before making the final decision.

Make Your Idea Doable

Carnegie liked the draft so much he spent much of 1935 and 1936 on the final version of what became “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

The book had lots of fresh ideas from pioneering psychoanalysts on maintaining mental health. And it helped family and friends maintain hope, even when other factors like the economy seemed so gloomy.

The book was published in November 1936 and by the end of the next year had sold over 700,000 copies. That put it at the top of the nonfiction list. By the time of his death in 1955, the book sold five million copies in 31 languages. It continues to be popular, helped by endorsements from everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Tony Robbins.

The partners offered Shimkin a $25,000 bonus for making the book happen. But he knew it was worth more. He turned down their offer in favor of receiving ownership of one-third of the company.

He followed the formula, again. “Peace of Mind” by Rabbi Joshua Liebman, published in 1946, sought to reconcile religion and psychiatry. The book reached No. 1 on the nonfiction bestseller list.

Help Create A New Industry Like Shimkin Did

Shimkin’s next big project was a partnership with publishers Robert Fair de Graff and Simon & Schuster.

Shimkin created Pocket Books as a paperback division of Simon & Schuster that published books that only cost 25 cents. The books could be distributed to magazine outlets, like stores, rather than book channels.

A print run of 10,000 copies of each of the first titles was launched in May 1939. And the paperback industry eventually overtook hardcover books.

In 1944, publisher Marshall Field III bought Pocket Books. Following Field’s death in 1957, Shimkin and partner James M. Jackson bought it back for $5 million. Simon & Schuster ultimately bought the business in 1966.

Shimkin became chairman of Simon & Schuster until he sold it to Gulf & Western in 1957. Tireless and hard-driving, Shimkin continued to go to his office twice a week until he became sick in 1987, according to his son.

Leon Shimkin’s Keys

• Former partner and CEO of Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books.
• Overcame: Resistance to making books affordable for everyone.
• Lesson: “Before meetings ask your staff what is the cause of the problem and what are all the possible solutions.”

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