Short answers, pulled from the story.
Thomas Thorpe entered the book into the Stationers' Register on the 20th of May 1609, marking its official publication. George Eld printed the physical text while William Aspley and John Wright divided the sales between them.
The dedication page addresses Mr W.H. as the only begetter of these poems with upper case letters resembling an ancient Roman lapidary inscription. One theory identifies William Herbert the Earl of Pembroke as the intended recipient while another possibility points to Henry Wriothesley the Earl of Southampton whose initials appear reversed in the dedication.
Most sonnets use three quatrains followed by a final couplet to create their structure with the rhyme scheme following ABAB CDCD EFEF GG throughout the collection. This pattern defines what critics call Shakespearean or English sonnets using iambic pentameter as the standard metre.
Thirteen copies of this quarto volume survive today and they remain the primary source for understanding Shakespeare's work. The specific arrangement has survived with remarkable consistency across the surviving copies containing 154 sonnets followed by A Lover's Complaint.
Current linguistic analysis suggests the Dark Lady sonnets were composed first around 1591 or 1595 before procreation sonnets followed next. Later sonnets to the Fair Youth appeared last between 1597 and 1603 according to the text.