Marketing

Admittedly, this is not my area of greatest expertise, but I have picked up a few things along the way.

I. Expect to have to do your own marketing
A. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every year. EVERY year. How many of those are advertised in any serious way? You tell me. How many times have you seen a poster for a new book coming out. How many times have you heard a book advertised on the radio? And of those, how many of those are from 'name' authors? Sure, every time Steven King puts out a new book, we hear about it. But I'm not Steven King, and neither are you (well, you might be, and if you are, please promote my next book). Editing companies are very much businesses, and they are very much about the bottom line. They want to invest as little money as possible, and make as much as possible. And if your book doesn't make enough, it's obviously a failure on your part, so they'll invest in someone else.
B. when you publish with a large company, you have a narrow window of time to 'earn' the right to publish with them again. Prepare as much as you can ahead of time. By the time your book comes out you want to have as many people as possible waiting to buy it.
II. Local marketing
A. Local sales are your bread and butter. Everywhere else you're trying to get people to buy 'just another book.' In your hometown, you can sell one person at a time every single day. If you can sell yourself, you've just sold your book.
B. Find locally owned places. Hey, Barnes and Noble may sell the a kajillion books every year, but it's a corporation. If you can get an independent bookseller interested in your writing, they'll make the sales as a person, they'll recommend you to their friends, move your book to the front of the store. They'll do the things that people working at a corporation aren't allowed to do.
C. Theme related marketing. People go to bookstores to buy books, that's true, but in a bookstore your novel is swallowed up. There are eighty displays in the store, each one containing another book. Everything is your competition. IF you can place your book someplace that it wouldn't normally be, you draw attention. Find something about your writing that can tie it to another activity, and position yourself to take advantage of that.
D. Events. Everyone loves a party, so throw a party. Did you just put out a book about vampires? Throw a supernatural masquerade. And set up a booth in the back with your book. Did you just write a murder mystery set in the civil war? How about a battle re-enactment. sometimes you don't even have to set the parties up, just find out who is already throwing one, and see if they'll let you bring a few books that happen to fit their theme.
III. Online marketing
A. Have a webpage, and tell everyone you know that it's up.
B. There are online communities centered around everything. Find the ones that fit, and join up.
C. Maybe there are only nine hundred people in the world who are interested in what you wrote, but with the online universe working the way it does, you can pinpoint those nine hundred. You may have to pay for your own advertising, but you can do it strategically.
D. Has your research for your book made you an expert in nuclear physics? Write an article, link it back to your website. Have you met a world renowned entomologist while trying to determine the best spiders to use as weapons? See if they'll link to your site. network, baby, network.
IV. Habits
A. Always be prepared to sell. That doesn't mean you need to stop people in the middle of Walmart and ask them if they'd be interested in buying a copy of your latest book, but it does mean you'll want to keep a few copies of your book in your trunk, just in case somebody at Walmart stops you and asks if you know anything that would be a good present for the bibliophile in their life.
B. Keep your eyes open. Are you visiting a friend out of state? See if there's an independent bookstore in their area, and see if the owner would be interested in letting you set up a signing one night. Did you write a story based around a dog show? check around and see when local dog shows are scheduled. Opportunities come up, be ready to take advantage.