I believe he referred to the greed factor of the publishing industry, that no matter what he submitted to his editor, the manuscript would be published because his name alone on the cover will sell his books automatically. And if you do try to write like one, you run the risk of possibly mimicking a major mistake. You've got to build a reputation beginning in the very first sentence. . . For instance, a best-selling author may take a far more leisurely approach to the pacing of his or her novel. Perhaps even by page fifty the story is yet to kick in.
Fans have patience to stick with such an author because of past experience.
In other words, if a John Grisham novel isn't riveting at page 50, his fans will continue reading because he's always paid off before. A first novel, however, must begin on page one. The purpose of page one is to convince the reader to read page two, and so on, and so on. You've got to build a reputation beginning in the very first sentence of your first published novel. If you seriously want to be published, thoroughly research the marketplace and determine what publishers want to buy.