For Goldstein, an industry veteran with 42 years of production and supply chain management experience, the function of the production department has always been to support authors and editors with timely delivery of book product. The support function of a production department is optimized, according to Goldstein, by following three best practices:
- People:
- Howard Goldstein

Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.