I attended the recent ALLi conference on marketing, which was very useful. The most interesting (though not necessarily most useful) talk I saw was
this one--Secrets of successful authors: tactics used by authors earning over $5K per month. The presenters did actual research on what authors were doing. Some key points I took home were:
1. Paid marketing is important--authors who made significant money invested money in their advertising (and spent less time doing things like library readings, engaging with social media, etc).
2. Authors earning over $100k/yr worked on average 33 hours per week on writing and 12 hours per week on marketing.
3. Authors earning over $100k/yr averaged 33 published books (vs an average of 7 for everyone under $100k)
4. Many authors earning over $100k/yr started out self-pubbing, and now have a mix of self-pubbed books and traditionally published ones.
5. Editing is important--96% of authors earning over $100k/yr use a professional editor
6. It takes time--authors earning over $100k/yr were far more likely to have been writing/publishing for years.
7. For all the angst we authors suffer over it, it doesn't seem to make much difference (in income) whether you spread your books wide, or go strictly with Amazon (in order to take advantage of KDP select).
It was daunting, but also heartening in a way. It was good to see research, not just one author's story of what worked for them.
There were lots of other great sessions, and they're all on the ALLi blog. Check them out here:
ALLi Blog | Self-Publishing Advice Center