Starting to publish

Recently some friends and my husband, Jeff and I went to visit Apple Hill. Apple Hill is a local collection of apple farms. During the fall they are open to visitors. There is food, fun, crafts and a bazillion people. Normally we go one or two weekends with family and friends. We have been going ever since we moved up to the Sierra foothills over twenty years ago. From time to time I will purchase a piece of jewelry or some crafty thing to give as a gift at Christmas. This year we were really strapped for cash. I haven't been working as a sign language interpreter very much. Most of the time I only work in the school system. However I did not pass a very important certification test this summer, and until I do, I can't work in public schools. That means our income has been drastically reduced. Needless to say there wasn't any spare change to buy trinkets or such things. We did enjoy looking at the wares people were selling and smelling the home baked pies and large crates of fresh fruit. At one farm we met an older man who was selling his books about historical stories from the California foot hills. He was also selling a book about self publishing. My friend Don bought it for me, bless his soul. He told me it was for all the years of cooking delicious meals for them when they come to visit. Little does he know I love to spoil my guests. Anyway the book has been very informative. The fist step to self publishing is to create a ficticious business name for your publishing company.
At first I thought I would chose the name Diamond publishing. It is suggested you don't use your name or a family name in case you want to sell the business later on. On second thought, I thought the name Dragon Land Publishing Co. would be better. It is more interesting and has conotation to family stories and legends. I need to make sure no one else is using the same name, and must get a business license and place an ad in a local newspaper for four weeks. I wonder how much that will cost? We'll have to see.