teach me how to publish

It is a dream of mine to one day see my work bound in print. I am working on what will, one day, hopefully be my first novel. I have but one problem; I don't know shit about publishing a book. Please, if you have any knowledge on the subject, tell me everything I need to know about making a real book. My plan was to just toss it up on Lulu.com and eventually pay for an ISBN number, but I beyond that I really don't know where to go. Can you help me realize my goals?