I will have more on this subject coming up within the next week or two from an author in the know, but in the meantime, Laurel Snyder, editor of "Half/Life: Jew-ish Tales from Interfaith Homes" has some advice on those great collaborative efforts at About Freelance Writing:

So you write a proposal, with a section on marketing, and it makes your skin crawl. You think of angles and you find comparison books that have done really well. If you're very lucky, an agent signs on to help you sell your idea. When that agent has no luck, you sleaze yourself around on the internet and at every writing conference you can find, until you sucker a poor indie publisher into paying for your dream. But just barely. Indie publishers can’t bankroll you beyond paper and ink, and so you're still waiting tables.

You get excited, celebrate your "sale" with cheap beer and Indian take-out.

More here.