At what point does an author start taking the fans of his/her work for granted?
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Huge fan of Campfire Cooking in Another world. Bought every volume to date including the recently finished Vol 17. But since a few volumes ago I feel like the author stopped putting the effort into new volumes. I'm talking about the page counts of stories, illustrations etc. At the start of the series volumes were well over 200 pages of the story. The last 2 volumes have been drastically chopped to 160 total pages with story becoming less and less and more like the author just wants to write a few chapters and call it a book, There are many series out there just like that. Not at all worth the money per volume in my honest opinion. It just feels like that despite the potential to write Campfire Cooking with almost unlimited content ideas, the author maybe is sick of his own creation?
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There's no shortage of series that have run out of gas or dropped off in quality, and it's always sad to see.
But framing that as taking the fans for granted like they owe you something? That's deeply entitled.
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I think most stories start as web novels. The author has an idea they want to share, their take on a genre, etc...People actually start reading what they write, give positive or at least constructive feedback, making the process more exciting for the author and they generally are thrilled.
At some point, the publishers step in, offering a book deal. The author can now profit from the work they enjoy, but they don't necessarily get to interact as much with the fans that got them to this point. Some continue there web novels, but I assume most are forced to now meet publisher expectations and deadlines, limiting the feedback they can get from the fans.
Finally, the author ultimately had a vision for their story. But unless it evolves into something more that the author enjoys (i.e. Arifureta), it ultimately will end... if the publisher allows it. That's when we start getting filler volumes that don't really add to the story from the first volume, like iron chef stories in isekai (i.e. Rising of the Shield Hero).
I don't think the author is taking the fans for granted, I think either the publishers, as a business, have to much control or the author has run out of story.
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To answer the title question: I don't know many instances of authors actually doing that.
Some video game studios, on the other hand, (and some tv/movie studios, for that matter) have definitely found a way... ('We stuffed the cast of this medieval fantasy full of anachronistic representation and put every buzzword we could think of into the marketing. Why aren't you paying us? Are you bigots?!')
The difference, I think, is the expectation of your money. Normally, the expectation is that fans vote with their wallets. If your quality drops (or rises), your sales will follow. Someone who accepts the judgment of their audience on the quality of their work isn't taking the fans for granted, even if the work is sub-par. But the moment they switch over to blaming the audience for the failure, then they're taking the fans for granted.
But back to Campfire Cooking specifically. Ultimately, I can't really answer that. Both because I don't read the series, and because 'not good enough' is a personal judgment you have to make for yourself. But no, you probably aren't being taken for granted.
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With this series specifically, there's only so much that can be done with the premise imo. And the author has done it. The last few volumes have been shorter yes, and they also haven't been as interesting because it's just the same thing.
I do think the author was setting up for a "different" next volume with the High Elves and not having to use crazypants for all the specialty butchering, and I'm willing to see where that goes, but maybe that's because I don't buy the volumes, I just read it as part of my j-novel sub. If I were buying the volumes, I'd probably have quit doing that 5 volumes ago.
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Yeah conceptually campfire cooking only has so many ways to cook the same story over and over in a way that doesn't make it very boring.
I wouldn't actually mind a few chapters about the other group of summonees who eventually fled the country too. At some point they'll have to have heard about what the heck Mukohda's been up to. Hell, a PoV from the place that summoned all of them could be interesting too as just way to break up the whole, hunt, butcher, eat cycle.
