(Edited to add: The Author Pow Wow has begun! Follow along on Twitter using hashtag #powwow11)

In a couple of days, some of the 8cr staff will be heading to Austin, TX for our Author Pow Wow. There, we’ll be spending a solid day and a half talking with authors and publishing industry professionals about Doing What Works. This is a key topic right now, as definition of this is as complicated as ever, with shifts in publishing formats, as well as the media to promote the work, continue at a rapid pace.

To step back a bit from the confusion, we’ll begin with helping each other think about why we’re even in this to begin with. Why our ideas are relevant right now, why we think they will help others, and why we should spend the time, energy, and resources on taking them from our heads into the world. The result, hopefully, will be empowered authors, filled with newly found knowledge and a sense of purpose that will create a positive effect in the world.

And for those who aren’t attending, you’ll get to digest what these people produce, in a number of different and interesting ways. This, of course, will empower you – to think differently about your work, and how to do it better.

2012 will be a big year for us – both as authors and readers.

Big thanks to Cave Henricks Communications, Shelton Interactive, and Greenleaf Book Group for helping us bring this event out of the cold north, to a much more comfortable (at least this time of year) Austin, TX.

We’ll certainly report more here when we return.