Somewhat belatedly I've come upon the short article "The Five Stages of Law Review Submission" (which was posted at bepress and SSRN a year ago). See http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/692/ or http://ssrn.com/abstract=796264.
The authors, Brannon P. Denning and Miriam A. Cherry, humorously compare the process of unsuccessful law review submission to the five stage process of coping with a terminal illness diagnosis that was developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in On Death and Dying. Like the feet of Cinderalla's step-sisters this may not be a perfect fit, but it's a good avenue for humor. One doesn't get the impression that the fictional author in the end has really arrived at acceptance of rejection, and one hopes that the real authors have managed to place the piece.