The idea is to build a vita of publications leading to a first book publication, usually a chapbook issued by a small press. Eventually, you hit the reading circuit to sell the chapbook and build a reputation, all the while still submitting to journals around the country. This pattern is most common for poets. If you're doing all this for money, your odds are probably better trying to win a Publishers' Clearing House contest. Not everyone chooses this path, of course.
Some countries have pubs, some have salons.
We have the creative writing workshop. Though I make my living teaching such workshops, I am not convinced that they represent the only way to learn to write in the USA, or even the best way. I work hard to keep attentive to what writing is all about. Of course, we need to learn our craft, but, above all, we need to remember why we're learning it. More often than not, we miss the mark.