I do a few textbooks, but for the most part I work on scholarly and trade books--my acquistions area is business and economics. For the scholarly books, content is always more important than style, with the result that we sometimes hand a book over to production proud that we got all of the pages facing forward, and nothing more. That said, I like what I do, even if it is far removed from the fiction editor I imagined that I would be when I was twelve.

Tact is rampant in publishing. This is not always a good thing. Coming from a trade background, I think I am much louder about issues than my colleagues, but production and marketing appreciate the honesty (usually), and my books always get the attention they deserve. I am nice to authors, so that when I sometimes have to let them have it, they know I mean it. And, really, don't mess with my assistant.