Be different!

The best way to end up finding yourself published?

Be unique.

It sounds really simple doesn't it? But with thousands of stories written every single day, how is it even possible to make yours really special? Pretty much every story we read or come up with ourselves has been rehashed a hundred times already, so in that case the only way you can make the story special, is by making your writing special. When you put our own voice to a certain story, it instantly sounds different. You could write a story about Hercules, about Jesus, about Buddha, about Odysseus, about Mohammed, about whoever and whatever, and even though there have already been a million stories told and written about this lot, no story has ever been written the same.

How do you make it so different that it'll pique the interest of major publishers though?
Add a completely different twist to it. Tell the story through the villains perspective...and make the villain seem like a prick or a hero himself or whatever. Use a bit of poetry here and there to break up the usual prose.
Above all use your own experiences to write the story, to truly make it your own. Imagine the story of Buddha, yet similar to the annoying brother you were as a child, you could write the comedic story of Buddha through the eyes of his little brother who annoyed the hell out of him (and if he didn't apparently have a little brother...then whatever make it up! Fiction people fiction!)

Good luck with it guys.