Downtown library, find a corner on the top floor. Free wifi!

My dacha.

Paul and Myrna already gave great advice/info. But I wanted to also let you know about an event happening at the Central Library on April 2nd from 12- 1 p.m. that may be of interest to you:

Publish Your Passion: Learn how to turn your interests into a book and sell it! with Jennifer Worick and Kerry Colburn

Good luck!

Myrna is right: Nowadays, at least, editors come in at the very end of the process. A lot of editors I know do a lot of the job that editors used to do: Identifying story problems and cleaning a book up to the point where it's okay to get to an editor.

If you don't have an agent, your book should be pretty clean when you hand it in. How clean? At least clean enough that you wouldn't be horrendously embarrassed if you lost a copy on the street and a stranger picked it up and read it. It should feel like a book. The agent is supposed to make it a better book.

Is there some kind of publishing or editing course you can take? Even basic proofreading experience will help you. Many publishers freelance copyediting and proofreading, which would be a good way to get your foot in the door.

Most publishing houses are in New York City, and there's a small publishing hub in the California Bay Area. If you're serious about publishing, I would try those areas; anywhere else is slim pickings.

www.bookjobs.com is a good place to find internships and job opportunities.

You can also get an entry-level position with a background in whatever kind of books the publisher does. So if you have a background in environmental issues, look for an environmental publisher.

And like the others have said, publishing does not pay well, yet the jobs remain competitive. Technical writing and copy writing are in high demand and pay much better.

Relatively good A: Get a copy of the Writer's Market, read it front to back, as Cherie Priest recommended here: http://questionland.com/questions/16382-so-im-180-000-words-into-the-first-draft-of-a-scifi-novel-what-the-hell-do-i-do , or scan this list: http://pred-ed.com/peba.htm and introduce yourself to each company that seems like a match for YOU / your personality and style.

The shady real A: If this is a career you need, not want, to do, then the answer is: Move to NYC. (Just about anyone there and in the biz will agree).

if you want to get started in publishing, start publishing. publish a zine, publish comics, publish poetry. DO IT YOURSELF. publish friends, publish strangers. start publishing. you will learn much more doing it yourself than at a lousy internship.

I have similar advice to novice musicians and artists. if you want to be a musician, start playing music. if you want to be an artist, make art. yes. really.

You might also look into web content editing. There's a lot more opportunities for that in this area, and it pays a hell of a lot better than an internship. No, it's not books or magazines, but it's good experience, and could eventually lead to something you're more interested in. Check out some of the technical placement agencies like Aquent and Volt.

This isn't really a good time to get into publishing. Most publishers are downsizing right now and not sure how they're going to survive in the future. But if you're really determined, then Keshmeshi is correct - your first step should be an internship. I know Sasquatch hires unpaid interns regularly. I actually did an internship with them (as a designer, not an editor).

Here are some publishers I know of in the area:
Sasquatch Books (focus on cookbooks, travel, regional, and other adult-oriented non-fiction)
becker&mayer! (focus on childrens' books & non-fiction for adults)
Marquand Books (focus on Art books for museums and artists)

Sasquatch is probably the only important (more or less) book publishing house in the area. There's also a children's book publishing house and one that handles foreign language books, but I'll be damned if I can remember the names of either of them. There's also Mountaineers, but I think that might be an offshoot of Sasquatch. You might also consider some of the magazines in the area. Off the top of my head: Seattle Magazine, Seattle Metro, Seattle Bride, Outdoors NW. I know Seattle Magazine offers regular internships, and I've seen internship listings for Alaska/Horizon Air's in-flight magazine.

Internships are pretty much the only way to get started in the industry as far as I can tell, especially in a city like Seattle where the pickings are slim.

Friends of the Nib http://friendsofthenib.blogspot.com/ and the Bureau of Drawers http://thebureauofdrawers.blogspot.com/ are two local meet-and-draw groups. You should definitely go to some of their meet ups — you'll meet artists who can give you advice.

It would also give you a change to practice drawing yourself. Even if you can't draw how you'd like to see it, it would help you learn the "language." It's essential to educate yourself about all kinds of art generally. All of the most successful mainstream comics writers (who are, generally speaking, the people who aren't drawing their own comics) — Alan Moore, Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman — can do a bit of drawing, even if it's not professional quality — you have to know how to think visually as a writer, not just as an artist. Also, other writers, such as Gail Simone, Brian K. Vaughan, etc. took theater writing classes, so that would probably help out. Even if you have the best story in the whole wide world, it's how you tell it.

There are plenty of books at the library to get you started. Jessica Abel and Matt Madden's Drawing Words, Writing Pictures would probably be another useful resource, and Alan Moore has a how to write book too.

Stan Lee isn't really a useful example. He got his start by being the right person's nephew.

Well, it worked for Hunter Thompson (obviously). I don't think it's a matter of if the American public is ready for it. It's more a matter if you're a good reporter, with the ability to condense the whole picture, and if you've got the talent as a writer to pull it off. Not everyone does.

So being your own grandfather is taboo... can you believe that, just don't have your characters screw away putting semen in places they shouldn't or accepting semen from someone they shouldn't.

I agree with Adam: read that article and maybe address a few of those things, don't use time-travel to cover plot holes, and don't make the explanation of it overly technical. In "The Time Traveler's Wife," for example, the main character travels due to a genetic disorder that is NEVER explained in the book. And that's fine, because it's not central to the story.

Watch out for paradoxes.

Above all, make sure it's
a) actually needed to advance the story, and
b) applied to the entire world in a thoroughly logical fashion (i.e. what would the world have been like if this form of time travel was here for many centuries? What will the future bring with this technology available? Is it likely some villain will render the protagonist's hard work pointless with some future time travelling of her/his own?

2ndly: Pitfalls to avoid, As in; old tired tropes to avoid?

This page is good for it:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TimeTravel
includes this lovely quote:
Time travel is theoretically impossible, but I wouldn't want to give it up as a plot gimmick.
— Isaac Asimov

I really get bored with the explanations of whatever time travel schtick the author chooses to follow. Whether it be the butterfly effect, killing grandfathers or Hitler, or cascading and infinite dimensions theory, keep the explanations short.

One of my favorite treatments is in "the Eyre Affair." Where time travel crops up (which it does, a lot) the characters have assumed knowledge and the author gives the reader credit for understanding the theories. It is nice to be treated by authors as having a clue.

Right. I think the first problem that a reader might have with this device is the plainness of the fact that the author is using it as plot-hole spackle.

Work it in, I guess. If it's popping up without any foreshadow, do it at the very beginning of the book.

Oh, and read this: http://www.cracked.com/article_18564_6-time-travel-realities-doc-brown-didnt-warn-us-about.html

This is an eternal question.
I might try looking up K.D. Booze of "The Virgin Project" and asking him.

However, there are graphic artists and writers attempting to network all the time.
There MUST be a website where this connection is encouraged.

Have you tried www.comicbookresources.com or
Bendis' website? I should think that either would do well.