Wanting side job of writing

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I'm a library science major, but I would ike to have a side job as a writer. I've already technically written two books of very different genres. One is sort of sci-fi supernatural creatures but w/ characters dealing w/ moral issues & such (its difficult to decribe unless you read it). The other is a collection of poems I wrote in HS describing my perspective on the spectrum. I also am writing a few other things (another collection of random writings, short stories & sequel to vampish book) but have been stalled due to college work & writers block due to "brain tiredness". One thing I would like to note is my one HS teacher who did read the shorter version of the one story did not think it was that much like twilight (no sparkly vamps loving human girls & such). I want to be able to edit my work well enough (not the poems so meaning isn't scewed) that it is acceptable/nearly perfect. Any suggestions for good editing programs for long documents & papers? This would help me w/ school also. I also have been looking up publishers & found publishamerica. Anyone know about them? I know how to get on their site to find out what they require of authors but I wanted outside opinions if possible.

p.s. Other writers, how do you count words (like what does the K in ex. 130K mean)? I read somewhere that you take a random line in your work & count the letters within an inch & thats your count for cubic inches. Anyone know what kind of word count pubishers prefer?

Publish America is a known scam. They will print the book, yes, but you must pay for all of them before they are shipped, and they do no advertising. Yea, you'll be a published author in the sense that you can buy your grandmother a hardcover book and have her set it on the table, but no one will walk into Barnes and Noble unless you somehow have an in with them.

Go to the NaNoWriMo website. There's a post near the lower right hand corner, 'I wrote the book, now what?' It links you to a bunch of different information on how to get published, and it's real information posted by many actual published authors.

Check out this website http://www.lulu.com/

You write a book adding photos, graphics and cover art and upload it to their computer.
This costs nothing.
They tell you the cost of printing per book and you set the sales price.
They advertise it on Amazon and you can advertise it yourself, put it on Ebay or whatever.

If someone wants to buy it they click the "buy now" button.
Lulu takes the order for the sale price of (say) $30, deduct their agreed on printing cost of (say)$20 and send you $10 as your profit.

I ordered a book from them and it turned up in less than a week and I live in Australia!

I find the idea exciting.

For example you could write a book on the history of your town. No "normal" publisher would touch it because it is too small time.
But in your town it is very likely that hundreds or even thousands of people would buy a book that mentions their family.

I am thinking of doing a photo book on really nice looking houses in the mountain town where I live.
Who would buy it? Well I would bet that all the people whose houses were featured would buy several copies each.

You could write a book on any subject you know about from tying fishing flies to collecting Barbie dolls.
Then you could mention your book on all the forums where fishermen or Barbie collectors hang out.

I think this could be a very exciting business for people like us and the best part is it doesn't cost any money to get started and there is no "face to face" dealing with anyone!

About word count, it has a traditional meaning that allows a publisher to know how much space is needed. An average page is 250-300 words. More details here:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=608972

It's definitely not the word count in Word. That is useless information.