Non-Traditional Publishing
*Submitting/Querying w/o an agent
*Small Publishers
*Self-publishing
*E-Books

Traditional Publishing for books:
1. Get an Agent
2. Agent submits work to major publishing houses.
3. Publishing company may or may not offer you an advance, in exchange for some or all rights to distribute your work.
4. Publisher assigns an editor, to work with your manuscript.
5. Publisher prints, distributes, and maybe markets your work. You may need to also market your work.
6. They assign more or less resources to your project, depending on how your book sells in the early weeks of distribution.
7. If your book does well, they may do additional runs, depending on the contract. If your book does poorly early on, they may opt to not do additional runs, and may own the rights, so that you can't take the project elsewhere for another run. Be mindful about how much of your rights you want to give up, when going through contract negotiation.

Six Degrees of Selling Books.

Six Degrees of being a selling author.
Writing
Editing
Printing
Distributing
Selling/Marketing
Analysis

Publishing Definition

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source pub·lish (pŭb'lĭsh) Pronunciation Key
v. pub·lished, pub·lish·ing, pub·lish·es

v. tr.

1. To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale.
2. To bring to the public attention; announce. See Synonyms at announce.

v. intr.

1. To issue a publication.
2. To be the writer or author of published works or a work.

[Middle English publicen, publishen, to make known publicly, from alteration of Old French publier, from Latin pūblicāre; see publication.]