Well if I knew the secret, I probably wouldn't tell you it, but unfortunately, there's no definite route. I can tell you certain things that are going on right now:
1) Hardcovers to get more reviews: This has been going on since the 1990's - limited hardcover runs expressly to get sff titles into libraries that wouldn't take them otherwise, and to get reviews from mainstream publications, which only wanted hardcovers. This worked so well, that now sff publishers are able to get mainstream reviewers to cover a lot of paperback offerings too.
2) Multiple publishings of series books in a short time period: This used to happen periodically, now it's happening en masse with sff publishers, using the category romance model. This has occurred basically in response to the demands of fans and booksellers. Fans got very grumpy about the delays in series like Jordan and Martin. If it's a series, they now want to have a whole series to read, without year-long waits. So serial publishing, with the books coming out close together, gets people to buy the whole series, instead of just one book and then possibly losing interest. For booksellers, it means books on the shelves, which they want, plus it means they can try to sell someone three books instead of one. Serial publishing has been a major strategy in creating the supernatural fantasy explosion, and establishing a fan audience quickly for authors like Kelly Armstrong and Charlaine Harris.
3) Cross-marketing: The book, a well-known author or promising debut, comes out as a Bantam Book. It's marketed as general fiction through Bantam Books and as sff through Bantam Spectra. They can do this because bookstores have lightened up about this stuff, because there's more mainstream interest in sff, more non-category authors interested in the category market, and more sff fans reading non-category titles. Also, with them being giant international octopi, a publisher like Warner can co-ordinate British, American, Canadian and Australian publications and promotion efforts. Smaller presses catch the wave by marketing their stuff as cross-medium, targeting graphic novel, mystery, literary fiction and other non-category markets. All of this gets them more mainstream reviews, which means many more reviews in total.
Naomi Novik's main drum beater is her British publisher, who came out with the books first. Del Rey is just following up in the American market. No matter how much publicity a publisher choses to do for an unknown author, though, if the booksellers don't agree a newcomer has "legs," they won't go for it. Many times, a publisher gambles on extra publicity for a new title, and then booksellers and more importantly, potential readers, don't cotton to it and it flops.
The publisher also can't force mainstream or even category press to do reviews or interviews. In this case, the publishers' cross-marketing, positioning Novik as Pat O'Brien (a mainstream author,) with dragons, seems to have helped and gotten them mainstream coverage, which makes a much larger crowd of folk aware of the novel's existence. The serial publishing then helps her potentially get multiple reviews.
But, unless you have good word-of-mouth, it doesn't work so well. Novik has gotten great word-of-mouth, in category and out. The majority of sff authors, however, do not charge out of the gate. They build up an audience more slowly, also on good word of mouth.
Your publisher, Wayne, also cross-markets, as a religious and psychology publisher that branches out into other markets. You are being marketed in religious fiction (even if your stuff isn't very religious,) and various youth markets, right? They may be doing less category fantasy marketing, and also just trying to build you up a fan audience. And they're doing serial publishing.
You can help with word-of-mouth by trying to introduce yourself to booksellers, especially the few specialty sff booksellers left. If your stuff is YA, you can also try to arrange to visit some school classrooms in your target age range and talk to the kids and do a little reading. Conventions can help, as is getting to know the online sff community, as you're doing. And you and your agent can encourage your publisher to seek out mainstream and category reviews.
The number one reason people buy fiction is that they are curious about a title and want to check it out. Publicity can make them aware of a book and thus hopefully get the curiousity generating, but it can't sustain waves of interest. The number one way people find out about a particular title is still that they heard about it from a friend or acquaintance who recommended it.
The members on this site offer a sort of skewed view, because they are actively seeking to find out about fantasy titles. I, for instance, come here specifically for that purpose, also get publisher newsletters, troll Amazon, etc. I may be attracted by a cover or a title, face up or not, but if the book description doesn't interest me, I'm not going to try it. Reviews alert me to a book's existence, but don't influence my buying decision. Other people may be more influenced by a review, a quote, an ad, a front-table display, but they'll only buy a specific title over other titles that have reviews, quotes, ads, a front-table display, if they feel the review, quote, ad or cover copy when they pick it up from the display, makes it sound interesting. Or if a friend told them it was interesting and they're willing to see if they agree.
All of which makes fiction one of the trickiest markets to sell in. So if you find any foolproof methods, be sure to contact publishers about it, because they will probably pay you a large amount of money for the information.
Of course, we could also use another reason for people to buy fiction titles. People go to the movies just to get out of the house or go on a date. They buy fashion because it shows they have high social status and are trendy. They buy music because in their particular circles it's considered the cool music or because the female singer was really sexy in the music video. They buy a game because it's popular and all their friends will be envious and want to come over and play it. They'll buy a non-fiction business book because their boss thinks every business person should read it to be in the know.
But aside from reading clubs, where you buy the book to read and have a social evening of polite discussion, we can't seem to come up with any other reason to get people to buy fiction, except that they heard it was a good story or it sounds like a good story to them. At least, not anything reliable. A movie version helps, we know that, but it's not guaranteed, and most books are not going to get made into movies.
Just well enough that the publisher is happy, and I've made a little money. The 3rd book of the Door Within Trilogy is about to release at the end of August, and I'm thinking, what starts the snowball?
