I guess your publisher wants continuous numbering: it wouldn't really make sense to have two pages numbered 1, one in the front matter and the other in the main matter.
The definitions in the book
class are
\newcommand\frontmatter{%
\cleardoublepage
\@mainmatterfalse
\pagenumbering{roman}%
}
\newcommand\mainmatter{%
\cleardoublepage
\@mainmattertrue
\pagenumbering{arabic}%
}
so you just have to modify them
\documentclass{book}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\frontmatter{%
\cleardoublepage
\@mainmatterfalse
\pagenumbering{arabic}% <--- changed here
}
\renewcommand\mainmatter{%
\cleardoublepage
\@mainmattertrue
%\pagenumbering{arabic}% <--- removed
}
\makeatother