From what I have learned from research. A major publisher will receive your book and review it and return with one of 3 results. First declined outright. Basically your book sucks and they dont want anything to do with it. Least that how they see it. Second Published writer sponsored. They will publish and distribute the book but you have to pay all or some of the publishing costs. Third they will cover publishing and distribution. The third option is rare especially for a first time writer. The second is where most books go.

From what I can discern it costs the writer in the ballpark of 3-10 grand to have his books published. They will make the book available on the market to their retailers. What sells will be paid to you and of course they nickle and dime you to death until you see little of the actual profit from book sales. If the edition does not sell out in 10 months then they will ship the remaining books to you or you can pay to have another addition printed. If the books do sell out they 'might' front the money for the second publication.

Then there is inevitably going to be some editing done on a book if the publisher does like it and wants to put in the resources to do it. Most people have a hard time watching their books get butchered in the name of sales.

The issue is that a major publisher only tends to send out books that will sell so they dont alienate their retailers. New unproven books do go out but in far less quantity. Publishing a book is easy there are tons of resources available. The main issue is getting that book into a store. This is where major publishers have an advantage over small printing companies.

The question is what publisher would be able to understand the material subject that the books here will be about. There are a few publishers that specialize in books of 'alternative' culture that might. The issue is there are so many people trying to get books published and everyone thinks their books are the next best seller so it is a hard pill to swallow for some to learn that something they have spent years to create is not good enough to make it to the market.