Unless the publisher thinks your book is bestseller material or you're a celebrity writing your life story, you won't get published. Let's face it, publishing is like rolling the dice not knowing really which book will succeed and which one won't. Truth is only a handful of the 50,000 books published each year are multi-million dollar best sellers and many published books are duds.
Publishers are naturally leery of taking a risk on an unproven commodity.
If the publisher assumes your book will sit on a bookshelf collecting dust, they won't even think about publishing it. So, for those of you who have a well-written book and are having trouble finding a publisher, don't give up. There's still an option left. Take the bull by the horns and self-publish.