I've thought recently that the worst thing that can happen to an author's quality is massive success - it seems like there are a lot of authors who get to the t

I've thought recently that the worst thing that can happen to an author's quality is massive success - it seems like there are a lot of authors who get to the tail end of a series or who get a large body of work behind them who decide that they don't need anyone's input on their work, and their editors know it will sell and refuse to fight them on it. It's not universal, but "full creative control" seems like it doesn't work for a lot of writers.