And the fear of jumping the shark becomes this real, almost palpable thing. Almost all writers want to go out on top with a series — you never want to force continuation of a fading series for the sake of a few more books. At a certain point that differs greatly from series to series, things start to become…less than fresh. Tropes get recycled. Characters start to feel familiar and not in the good way. Setting starts feeling more cookie cutter. To readers this can sometimes be a good thing — you start to know exactly what you’re getting with X series. But it can also be a bad thing—you know exactly what you’re getting and the urge to read that next release isn’t as strong as it once was.
Reader fatigue with long series is a real risk and is wildly unpredictable. Sometimes that “jump the shark” book comes at book five, other times book fourteen or twenty-three. But as readers, we’ve all been there, that moment when the series you spent half a decade or more with drops from “pre-order on the spot” to “to-be-read-someday.” Reader fatigue isn’t just about existing readers either — new readers can get intimidated by long-running series. Do they really want to invest in a series with double-digits, especially if the books that most interest them are later in the series? And sure, those readers can often read out of order if the series contains standalone elements like a lot of romance and mystery series do. But some readers (and I’m one!) have to read in order and hearing you’ve got to make it through thirteen books to get to the one that everyone’s raving about is sometimes the difference between trying a book and not.
So ultimately, how do you know when to end a series? Ideally, it’s when you as the writer are ready to say goodbye or perhaps “see you later.” Other stories are demanding attention. Your muse yearns to try something new and fresh. All those noisy single secondary characters have their books. No new storyline is jumping up and down and demanding a book. Existing characters are happy, and no loose ends or story arcs are pressing. It’s time for a breather. Let that universe spin for a while without authorial intervention—relationships deepen, families expand, new adventures are had, but off-screen until such time as the pull to return becomes undeniable.
It’s truly a bittersweet moment, letting a series ride off into the sunset. But when it’s ending on a creator’s own terms and not because of outside forces, it’s also a truly wonderful moment. You know that you gave everything you had to the series and that it in turn gave so much back to you. You also know deep in your heart that you’re ready for something new and exciting, and really, the only one who can know that is the creator, whether it’s book three or book thirty. And so the cycle begins anew with another series. For me, as I bring one series to a close, I know that while I’m sad, I’m also incredibly invigorated by everything still to come.