Lazy publishing blogger.... Bad publishing blogger...

Buried at work, like so many other editors. Actually, I suppose when many people think of book editors in the summer, they imagine us at our homes on the Vineyard (that's Martha's, for those not in the know) or the Hamptons. They don't picture me dragging my tired behind to an office for long days, 15 minute lunches, and author calls that can go as long as an hour and twenty (though it was an author I like just fine today, for the record).

One distraction I've had, besides work, is Good Reads. Deadly. Very fun, very silly. For the book nerd in all of us.

I've also been trying to get my head around the Houghton Mifflin purchase of Harcourt. Houghton's take on it is here, while Harcourt does not seem to have posted any news of it on their site... unsurprisingly. Something more objective from PW here and the Boston Globe here. But this article on whether it will affect the trade side of both houses is what interested me. The opening was somehow eerie:

When Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep's CEO Tony Lucki said in statement that, “We would like to think that Houghton Mifflin's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Harcourt's T.S. Eliot would truly be proud of what we are announcing today," the subtext of the message seemed clear: HM Riverdeep's purchase of Harcourt is good news for literary publishing.

I don't want to look at the man behind the curtain, but that's one bizarre quote.

We shall see. Any thoughts on this acquisition and the future of the trade sides of both presses are most welcome. Should we be shaking in our readerly boots?