I wish to acknowledge....

And then, when the book is finally put to bed, there remains only the pleasant task of acknowledging all those people you wish to thank: spouses, lovers, friends, professional colleagues, wine merchants, correspondents and so on. In some cases, authors will also thank their editors, if, that is, they feel that their editors went beyond the call of duty. In my time, I have thanked maybe three of my editors; about the rest I remained silent as they did their job but nothing special beyond that.
Which brings me to the present book. I have been working on an acknowledgment, or maybe even a dedication to the commissioning editor. Something along these lines:
In particular, I wish to acknowledge the contribution of my editor, [name], without whose regular interventions, I could have written a better book in half the time.
I don't think the publishers will agree, though.