The problem: The publishing process fails immediately after you start it with no specific message.
It's because the first thing it tries to do is to clear the folder of any content by deleting it and recreating it just after.
You may have selected an output directory that is protected by Windows (such as My Documents, My Pictures, My Music...) or a directory where you have no write rights.
How to solve it: The best practice is to create a dedicated folder for output, such as "Desktop > MyWebsite", or "My Documents > Website output"...
Any folder that can be reached and deleted by the application will work fine.