I have seen that happen ... the author is drawing a blank on ideas, so he just bangs out a dull and formulaic story. It can destroy a series. Better to have no book, that to have a really bad one.
I’m an author in the zombie genre but I’m an independent writer. I would KILL to have two years to write my next book, and have people waiting for it. That’s the advantage of getting paid in advance by a proper publishing house. Plus, he’s obviously a great writer.
To cut it as an indie author you do have to crank out books in much shorter periods of time. Readers forget about you for good if you wait 2 months, much less two years. That’s just the way it is in the trenches of Amazon.
I get a chuckle over statements like “it ain’t like digging ditches.” That’s a pantload. Just like the ditch digger can’t say “aw hell, I’m just not feeling it today. I’m not going in,” a professional author can’t say “I don’t feel creative, so I’m going to skip today.” That’s the very definition of a professional author. You write even when you don’t feel it. AND you write the equivalent of a good ditch. You can’t make it too shallow or too narrow or the audience is going to bail. In most cases big time authors get paid in advance to write books, on deadline, and even though they’re bored of their world they have to phone in a book because they have a legal obligation to do so. That’s why later books in a series can suck.
Charlie Mike. This thread just caught my interest.