Regardless of what route you take - traditional, small press, self-publish - you'll have to do most, if not all, of the marketing yourself. Unfortunately, these days, it's rare for publishers to invest in new authors.

Small presses don't require you to have an agents, bigger publishers do.
It's a very slow process and it's a numbers game - you only have to find one person who believes in your book as much as you do, but it may take 100+ submissions to find them.
(2/3)

I can only really echo what other people have already said.
For nonfiction, you send an outline and sample chapters to agents and/or publishers.
For fiction, you need to have completed the book and send a synopsis and first three chapters to agents and/or publishers. (1/3)

For more details of my writing/editing life:
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For more details of my writing/editing life:
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