The one thing that will frustrate a new independent author more than anything else is having their book available for purchase at a handful of online booksellers and then realizing they haven't sold a single copy. If this happens, they might begin to think they wasted their time writing the story. Worse, they might begin to think their book isn't as good as they thought. After all, if it was good, people would be buying it right? Wrong. It's not a matter of creating a good story, it all has to do with advertising.
     When an author finds an agent and the agent finds a publisher who agrees to print the book, the agent and publisher both start marketing the book. The only way the agent and publisher are ever going to make any money is if the book is sold. This is especially true of a publisher who not only spends the money to print and bind many copies of the book, but might also pay the author an advance on the projected sells. The agent not only wants to recover whatever money they spent sending the manuscript to various publishers, they want to make a profit.
     While it is true that independent authors can sell many books without doing a thing, that will only happen if customers just happen to stumble onto the book listing at a place like Amazon. With millions of books available at such a site, the chances are very low this will happen. Unless someone types in an exact search phrase as it appears in the title or within the book, a book that hasn't sold won't pop up high on the search return list. Don't sit there hoping people will click through every page of results until they come to your book. More than likely they're going to buy one or more books before then and stop looking.
     Simply put, marketing is letting people know you have a book for sell. The more people who know, the greater the chances people will buy it. Not until people read your book, can you expect the message to spread from one person to the next.
      Marketing is a lot easier than it sounds. I won't go into every detail, but I will write out some ideas. Establish a web presence by making a web site, Facebook, or MySpace page. Hang fliers throughout your community. Hand out smaller versions of the flier to everyone you talk to while working or shopping. Talk to store owners/managers about holding book signings. Email all of your friends and family. Contact the local newspapers who might write an article in the local interest section.
     There are many ways to let people know about your book. No matter how you do it, don't just tell them you have a book ... tell them the title and where they can buy a copy. If they can't find it, they won't buy it.
     What it all comes down to is you can't just sit there, you have to market your own book.