@CrypticMirror eh, it was Heyne, I always got the feeling that publishing house was the stereotypical megacorp that didn't care about what editors or authors thought.
In fact I spent some interesting 30 minutes on the Frankfurt book fair listening to a group of Heyne executives dissing their current bestselling author who was having an author event at the other side of their stand.
(It was Dieter Bohlen, so nothing they said was likely untrue)