Publishing to the Microsoft Store?

Question

I am having all kinds of trouble publishing my MAUI app to the Microsoft Store.

1. If I try publishing from Visual Studio, I get the following error:

• "You must publish one version of this application to the Microsoft Store before using the Store submission automation tool"

2. If I try to upload the package manually to the Microsoft Store (i.e. in a package submission), I get the following errors:

• "Invalid package family name: XXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXXXXX_6k51yetae26ce (expected: XXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXXXXX_t7g5vnbs3ke9w)" - but I have no control over the suffix that gets added. Where/how do I change that?
• "Declared package dependency unavailable: Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.1.2, Neutral, Universal,Universal" - how do I fix this? Can I include it as a dependency somehow?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!