Thanks for the speedy and thorough reply!

I was thinking about in-house editing in the first question. I'm aware of some small presses accepting work or authors who are still at pre-publication level. This seems to work to varying levels of success.

40% royalty rate is indeed in the upper levels.

I tend to forget that there's an expiration date on earning from posts, so you make a good point. Also, any social media platform is at best an advert for a content creator - some sort of web site is needed to funnel interest.

I should mention that I'm not a creator, but am married to an author (9 years of traditionally published work this month) and manage web sites for a number of others. It's a tough market out there in publishing.
I wish you luck and will be paying attention :)