I'm always inspired by Uncle Jim.
I've posted elsewhere in regard to his comment above when somebody started a thread about trying to write like Stephen King. Basically, I told the poster "Why try to write like King? Try to write better than King because there's already somebody writing exactly like King and he's as good as he can be right now and he's trying to write better than he already is."
Publishers are really looking for the next Big Name. Just look at the horde of vampire romance novels that are still coming out. Look at the YA superhero novels that are coming out. Heck, there are still books about zombie horror and survival horror, Warcraft, Star Trek, Star Wars, Halo, and any other genre you can probably name coming out. How many novels about young wizards are there out there right now? How many novels about vampires and vampire hunters? How many novels about young love (or even old love)?
Publishers are constantly on the look for something that is going to sell.
That's their bottom line.
Your bottom line should be writing the best darned story you can so you can get it reviewed and represented by an agent and get it past an editor and onto the sales racks.
Then you should get cracking on your next book and becoming a better writer than you already are, not trying to write like somebody who's already writing as well as they can right now.
Thanks, Uncle Jim, for the daily inspiration you provide to readers and posters here at Absolute Write (and a big thanks also to MacAllister and all the other AW mods for providing AW and moderating this forum for all us wannabe's).