Is anyone in the community presently working in, or know anyone that works in, the publishing industry?

I have published 6 books through Amazon (createspace for paperbacks, and KDP for electronic versions). I bought a book that gives you pointers for self publishing, like how to format your manuscript, and it helped me through the process. I found it to be easier than I expected. As an unknown author, I'm not getting rich by self publishing.....but I am selling some books. Seeing your work in print is really a thrill.....whether you sell a lot of them or not. There is no cost up front doing this....the publisher and printer get their money as a book sells.....it's not printed until it's ordered and paid for. Then they take their share, and send you your share. They provide you with reporting and tracking tools so you can see how you are doing at any point in time. This was much easier than trying to get a publishing house to take you on as a new author.

Check out Joanna Penn's podcast - probably the next best thing to having connections!

Good luck. I find the publishing world a rather well defended fighting position. You might explore the various electronic literary journals or magazines. They seem to be fairly open regarding submission. I've submitted a variety of pieces, poetry and fiction, with no success to date. I'm still putting rounds down-range though.