Links around publishing

• Well, the economy hits everyone, and word is that Houghton Mifflin is putting a freeze -temporarily – on purchasing new books.. All books, even agented ones, as I understand it. Bad news. Apparently they’re not closing to children’s or educational book submissions, though. So that’s good (for those writers, anyway).
• If you’re a writer with a new book and you want to get blurbs from other authors, there’s a fabulous article about the etiquette involved: Blurbs I: Getting.
• Matthew Cheney writes advice to his younger self at The Swivet. Rule #5 is the most powerful one. Read it.
• And lastly, Nathan Bransford has some interesting comments about the state of the publishing world. And puppies.