I think focusing primarily on series authors badly skews your "
In general, I've found that most top of the line authors tend to write one or two books a year" claim (never mind the what qualifies as your definition of top-of-the-line authors). There are actually very few non-series (which may or may not translate to non-genre) authors who enter the game at a 1.5 books per year clip.
I also think this is another perfect example of series-writing having the tendency to "hamstring" both readers and authors a bit. Authors slowly (or sometimes quickly) run out of material that they've outlined ahead of time (or at the very least brainstormed heavily) for the series that elevated them to prominence in the first place; and readers have invested so much time and emotion in some of these lengthy arcs that even the best first book of a new series by the best new author ever won't be able to compete with their evolved notion of "
couldn't put it down." In many instances, the initial book of a series by a new author (new to me) that I couldn't put down was read by a 15, 20, or 30-year younger version of myself. I'm not certain I would make it past the first book of many series/authors that younger me couldn't put down if I had first encountered them today.
All series decline, and most authors who stick all of their eggs in one basket do, too (at least in terms of prolific-ness). So I agree with your "cycle" in general (though I think it only really applies to series authors), but I disagree that there's no new "A-listers" coming along to whose work "can't be put down." I find new favorite authors every year. So ...
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Originally Posted by pwalker8
When and who was the last time people here ran across a new A-list author?
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Probably last month. But then, I don't allow myself to get too bogged down by series any more either, so I probably try more new authors in general. I'm not going to name names since clearly "A-List" is highly subjective and argumentative to begin with.