With Stephen King (or any book author) it's a little different. It's not like they get rejected and keep selling that one book they just wrote. Most authors write bad books when they are starting, they get rejected and they continue to write more books, usually better books.
"It's not like they get rejected and keep selling that one book they just wrote." (1) just because you're selling doesn't mean you're making profit. (2) Airbnb wasn't profitable when they were getting rejected, so in a sense "they kept writing". Hell, they even sold cereal boxes to stay afloat before Ycombinator picked them up! https://www.airbnb.com/obamaos
