Hello Steve,
Which version of K2 and Joomla! are you using?
also when they do save, they dont appear within the news section.
Are you sure this is not a caching issue? If they are appearing after 15 - 20 minutes then you might want to clear your Joomla! cache after you have posted an item.
but wont let me click on the edit item to edit....
Have you tried it with the default template? (You must use ?template=system as a URL suffix.) Also is frontend editing enabled AND your K2 users have the appropriate permissions? ( use this tutorial as a reference
getk2.org/documentation/tips-a-tricks/201-allowing-users-to-submit-content )