>>8507
>but you don't choose the publisher.
>you are chosen by the publisher.
Seconding this. Exactly what I was going to say.
It's best to view publishers through the lens of successful business practices. This keeps you free of obscuring mysticism and flat out stupidity when trying to deal with them.
An unestablished writer needs to pursue the publishers, but theirs is the privilege of choice. Conversely, an established superstar writer is someone they sometimes indulge, like a patron of old, because they know it's not like a writer is going to stop writing. So, it's worth the investment of patronizing an occasional foreseeable failure. They also know it keeps their star from becoming bored and seeking another venue.
A nice place to inhabit, if one can get there. Most writers will never be superstars, and are constantly stuck working to match their book to a contrarian investing second-tier corporate fool.
As a reader the solution is to view the best seller lists as an avoidance guide. Whatever they are pushing is what you don't want. From the writers you admire find the books they read and praised before they became established. From the used bookstore aggregators find titles no one has seen in twenty years, or more. The writing then is just as good as what is being pushed now, and it will cost you a tiny fraction of what new books go for.
As a writer, your choice is simple. Choose them all and pray one of them chooses you. And keep writing – someday you might hit it big and enjoy the rare treat of being catered to. If not, fuck 'em! You're still a writer and that's a damn fine state of being.