Number of authors on my must-buy list taken a nose dive

The number of authors on my must-buy list has always been subject to peaks and troughs. But never has it been this dizzyingly low. Is it just me?

Now I'm only referring to paperbacks - my e-book must-buy list is brimming. I'm talking about the authors here that I love so much that I just have to own their work. The ones I read and re-read.

Once upon a time, in the not so distant past my must-buy list was two pages long, with notes next to each book reminding me of the publishing date. But these days... the number of books on that list has dwindled to an embarrassingly low number.
Why?

First off - the switch of several great series to hardback has blown my calendar out by months. I'm not sure what the hold up is, but it seems to take forever for the mass trade paperback releases to occur.

The second reason - several formerly great series have gone so far off the boil I've had to transfer the author to my library list - rather than waste my time/money on average additions to the series that I can't quite let go of just yet - Laurell K Hamilton, Jayne Ann Krentz to name a few.

Or worse, where the books in the series have become unreadable - Charlaine Harris (Sookie), Rob Thurman (Cal/Niko), Mary Janice Davidson (Wacky whiney Betsy) Cecy Robson - all great series to begin with but I had to drop completely and walk away from fast, in case I began to forget why I loved them in the first place.

More disheartening is the number of series I've recently downgraded to the - wait and see the reviews list. As much as it pains me: Thea Harrison's Elder Races has been demoted, sorry, but where has the deft light touch and humour of the first few books in the series gone? And it pains me even more to add Shelly Laurenston's Crows series to that list. The Unleashing was a deal breaker for me. (I vote for more Pride Series).
Darynda Jones series sits on the cusp of this group thanks to her last wobbly effort, fingers crossed she doesn't cross the line.

The less than impressive new series by existing beloved authors. Oh, let me count the number of failures that fall under this heading. Lisa Shearin's SPI series - no thanks. Thea Harrison's Game of Shadows series - yikes. Charlene Harris Midnight Crossing - so boring. Jennifer Estep's recent YA series - jury is still out on this one.

I don't think it's just me. I know it's hard to write a book (trust me, I know) and harder still to write a series with consistently great additions each and every time. But isn't that what publishers, editors and beta readers are all for? Given that I'm really only talking about 'best-selling' authors in this blog, with PR machines and loads of support.
But at the end of the day it still comes back to the individual author to produce great books that are deserving of the readers' time and money. (And a coveted spot in my overcrowded bookcase)

So here I sit, fingers and toes crossed, hoping that this slump in regards to my paperback must-buy list is nothing but a brief and annoying anomaly.