Publishers are in it to make money - get over it

Earth to writer: yes, publishers are in it to make money. Duh.

1. Otherwise, how will they pay their staff and overheads? Etc.
2. When they make money from your book, so do you.
3. If they don't, you don't either.
4. Therefore, if they can't make money from your book, you don't want them to take it. 
5. Unless you actually don't care about making money.
6. Which is fine and dandy. But you should not be surprised if a publisher does not feel the same way.
7. So, when you are rejected by a publisher, do not moan that they are "only in it for the money". You are stating a truism.

Publishers are entitled to have beliefs about what kinds of books they can sell (which will be different for each publisher); they are entitled to take risks only when they wish to; they ought to know how many books they can cope with and of what sort; they are also entitled to make the wrong choice (in either direction). They know what they want because they know what they believe they can sell, and how. Sometimes they get it wrong. Sometimes I also hate the decisions they make. But they are entitled to make them in their quest to cover costs and even - o frabjous day - make a profit. Which they can then use to take more risks. Or, if they don't want to take risks, they don't have to.

Agents are the same.

That is how publishing works.

And luckily, in this crazy world, every sort of publisher exists. Some big, some tiny, some bold, some not, some forward-looking and clued up, some definitely not. Some who make poor decisions and behave badly; some who utterly believe in good books and in treating authors decently. Some who do a great job of selling and others who flap around like moths, with equal effect. Some who like my books and some who like yours and some who don't. And some who even like crap.

If you want to be published by a good publisher, you have to write a book which that publisher believes he can sell enough copies of, and for which that publisher happens to have room on his list. If he doesn't have room because he has already commissioned as many as the budget allows, he would be wrong to take yours on. If the book isn't the sort he feels knowledgable about selling, or passionate about selling, he would be wrong to take it on. He needs to believe it will sell and that he can sell it.

Perhaps you are not interested in money?
But a publisher must be at least a little bit interested, as he has people and bills to pay in the quest to sell your book. He actually has a duty to be interested in money.

Understand this and get over it, dear writer. Understand the markets, understand your book, understand your readers. And if you feel you've written a book that publishers can't publish but you can (because you have vastly fewer costs than publishers), self-publish as an ebook. You may well make a useful bit of money.

But then you're not in it for money, are you?