It varies a lot from venue to venue to be honest. The key thing to to find promoters/venue owners etc who you you feel you can work with and who are happy to work with you. Filter out the folks who will just waste your time, don't let them drag you down and move quickly onto the next venue/promoter/club.

One of the best pieces of business advice I have ever had is to ask not "what do I want to do" but "who do I want to work with". That was from a millionaire self made businessman who also happened to be a really nice chap.