Right! As far as I know either you go all-in with a publisher or you don't go with them at all. So they won't help you promote the book if they haven't helped y

Right! As far as I know either you go all-in with a publisher or you don't go with them at all. So they won't help you promote the book if they haven't helped you published it. However, CreateSpace that I've used to self-publish the book has options for expanding distribution to other channels such as book stores in U.S. That requires that the book store buys the books, so you're still back to square one; getting them to know you exist. Technology books are a bit different from "Normal" books from that I've heard. If you publish a normal book the publisher want the entire book before they make a decision. As for techical books they just want a chapter or two before they say yes or no to your book. If you go with a publisher they will help you with everything from proofing to marketing in all different channels and you will sell a lot more books but get a lot less royalties. What I did to enter new markets such as US and Spain was that I sent some free copies to influential people that I knew liked to read and talk about technology books. If they liked what they read they would talk about it, if they didn't they would at least know who I was. This of course requires that you pay for the marketing yourself. Hope this answered the question, sort of!