That said, any novels written before a 4th film (if there ever is one) may wish to steer clear of creating stories that are life-altering. (Not that that ever stopped previous authors from doing so, or previous TOS screenwriters, for that matter - plenty of trauma that's laughed off and forgotten next episode. I say "may" because some would like their works to have a long "possibly canon" shelf life.)
Novelists working with a currently airing series generally are expected to avoid telling stories that alter the characters' status quo in any major way; we have to "put the toys back in the box" at the end. It's only the books written after the end of a series that have the freedom to make major changes, and of course those get ignored if the series starts up again.