Isaiah Berlin's Book Is a Great Example of That

There is an unholy alliance between intrinsic quality and merit, he says. The history of publishing is littered with cases of books which were turned down many times by individual publishers. There's a certain conservatism in publishing that circles the view that there are certain formulas, certain types of books, which do well. But when these things are as they sometimes are gloriously accepted, er often by very small publishers, then over later, by the big boys, they can become massively successful.