As a feature filmmaker, your distribution strategy will fall into one of two categories. Either your movie will be picked up, marketed and sold through various outlets by one of those distribution companies you read about in the trades, or you will sell it yourself. This is the major difference between traditional distribution and self-distribution. Regardless of which path you take, there are certain fundamental steps you must complete to ensure the film makes a smooth transition from the edit suite to the marketplace.
Prepping Your Film For Distribution -- Independent Magazine
I often preach about having an exit strategy in life and definitely in Filmmaking. We often get too caught up in making the damn thing that we don't think about what to do when we're done. Some how we have convinced ourselves that its the greatest thing ever, but we really do need to have a plan for marketing and distribution. Goals people! You need to set goals! So read the article. It's worth it.