As for the publishing of songs, with a little help from your friend think about what you like to do most. write a song about it, then print a copy of it with a program like
guitar pro. send it off to get a copywrite on it ($25) then burn it to a cd and send it out to your local DJ's. With a little luck and a lot of hard work you can get it played on the
radio and your disks placed in the local juke boxes and to me that as published as I need to be, not to say that I wouldn't like to be nationally recognized someday.