Writers’ Roundup: January 21

Happy Friday!

Some helpful and interesting links from this week:

• Love this post from soon-to-be author Doug Mack about his first draft by the numbers.

• The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on how authors now move their own merchandise.

• Penelope Trunk his the nail on the head with this post about how to answer the question, What do you do? Answer with whatever you’re passionate about learning at that moment.

• Excellent reminder at ZenHabits about steps we can take to achieve a work-life balance.

• Solid discussion over at author Jody Hedlund’s blog about the importance of the first chapter.

• Michael Hyatt has some great ideas about how to create an awesome About page for your blog.

• Thinking about using Hootsuite to help you better manage your time on Twitter? Social media thug Marian Schembari’s Hootsuite video primer is worth watching. She also had a good post this week on how to use Twitter for networking.

• Finally, word on the street is that Mira Bartok’s (of Mira’s List — see Q&A with Mira on this blog) book, The Memory Palace, has hit The New York Times Best Seller list! Can’t wait to read this memoir, which should be on its way to my mailbox right now.

Happy weekend!