Sorry to all the nice people who signed my last one. If you have time, please sign again, or email me. If you think you can get a record deal without help, then you don't need a publisher. The publisher becomes your partner. A songwriter trying to break into the music business probably needs all the help he can get.
Publishers are like agents.
The songs are their clients and it's their job to get the songs making cash, whether that be through getting the songs on albums of popular artists, getting the songs included in TV and film scores, or even helping promote a record to radio stations. Anything to get the job done. If you don't have a record label and you think a particular publisher will shop your demo project around to labels, then having a publisher can be very helpful. In times past, the record labels were run by creative lovers of music and they took time to develop the talent. More and more, this job is falling to publishers, who, for a percentage of the publishing, will pay for demos, help get bookings, and god knows what else.