Shakespeare notoriously had teething troubles with plays such as:-
The Merry Wives of Slough
Eleventh Evening
Mick and Beth (with lines such as "is this a duck I see before me" and "out damned Fido!")

Graham Greene's cricketing novel "The eleventh man" didn't catch on.

Douglas Adams' "Hitch Hikers Guide to Milton Keynes" also flopped, as did the sequel "Thanks for the fish, we'll be back on Thursday"