Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
A lot of authors do seem to hit a point where their best works are behind them. I suspect that is part of the reason that so many big name authors use co-authors once they reach a certain age. I don't know that I would call it coasting, but eventually people just don't seem to have the drive and energy they had when they were younger.
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If the sentence I highlighted above is true, I suspect it may simply be that once successful or prolific authors get pressured to created beyond what they really want to do. But it's not a generalisation I trust. I can think of many authors where (IMO) the quality has/did not drop off; and other explanations present themselves for changing preferences:
It may sometimes be, as FizzyWater suggests, that we as readers lose some of the novelty factor of a new voice; or that, as HarryT suggested earlier, we as readers grow and change our preferences; or, as I observed of Stephen King, that the author grows and changes. (Or the many combinations and variations of factors like these.) Just because our preference has changed cannot always be ascribed to decreasing quality, however tempting we find it.