There can be benefits to marketing your invention yourself. The most important one is that it's up to you if you succeed. There is no one else to blame if your product fails. It is all reliant upon your own initiative to pass or fail, sink or swim, and the rest of it. Now believe it or not, that is a teriffic thing.

Who knows the invention like the inventor? The inventor is the only soul who can describe the true nature of what he has created. If it is left up to an 'Agent' or 'lawyer' something will be lost in the translation. Not everyone is suited for taking this type of approach, however it is a method that is seldom recommended and yet we wonder why the statistics for inventors making good are so low.
Who cares that it succeeds more? Who will believe in something that doesn't yet exist or seem to posess much posibillity of being profitable or usefull?

1.) Before you can begin to articulate the invention adequately to someone else, you need to sit down and engineer it so that it can be easily explained to someone else. Mentally construct a picture of what it will look like, What is it made out of? How will it work? What are the actualting Mechanisms if any? How complex is it? Are there other avenues that the product would be well suited for? Make sure that you have all these written down, or at least adequately stored within your cranium.

2.) Prepare as much detailed data as you feel confortable producing. Draw pictures of your invention, and record them on paper with the date and your signature. You should find a trusted friend to witness your documents. This is for legal authentication of dates etc. It is very important that the witness have written, "I have read and understood, on this day, witness name". Do not submit all this data to the client. There is no need to bog a clients data network if they are not really that interested. Always keep these documents on hand so in the event that you do have an interested party, you will be able to relinquish whatever documents they may require.

3.) Make a Prototype if possible. The better someone else can understand your idea, and what it does the better chance you will have of marketing it. I reiterate this point time and time again, but I believe it is worth noting that many people are unable to imagine your concept the way that you do, and won't be able to understand exactly what you mean no matter how long you attempt to explain it to them. This may simply be a flaw in the human genome, or maybe just a simple communication barrior that is common to our language, but whatever the matter, this is a fact and you will notice it as time goes on if you are a new inventor, or you will shout in wholehearted agreeance if you have been around a while I trust.

4.) Why do you think you hear about Edison day and night from a variety of media outlets when other inventors are virtually left out of today;s society? Becasue he was a shameless self promotor, and one heck of an entrepreneur. His business today has turned into the mighty G.E. and I don't doubt at all that they dump a kindly sum of money into comtinuing the shameless antics of thier founder. This is not a terrible thing, shameless self promotion must have been alright, considering the comfortable living that I'm sure Edison would still be able to afford. Consider the ways that you could truly promote your product, for the least amount of money, and with the greates impact to a broad audience.

4.) Contact companies that you think are a good match for your product/invention. Find out the policy of the company before you send anything confidential, and always use a Non-Disclosure Agreement. If you sign another type of agreement with any of these companies, expect to have your rights nulled. You are actually signing away rights to your property when you sign the other than non disclosure agreements with these companies. Be careful, there is a company out there who wants your invention, but it probably isn't any of the big boys. You are better off finding a company that is small to mid size, and looking to expand. These companies are more ready to accept outside solicitations and deal fairly with an inventor because many of them do not have the extra capitol for costly litigation either.

It's a hard struggle, and will end up costing you money no matter how you go about it, but the rewards are there if you continue to fight until you win. Good luck.

This tutorial, and all the inventions tutorials will continue to be updated to provide an evergrowing resource for the inventors of the world.