Questions and input on shapeshifter books

[Koda]

Hello all, I hope everyone is having a great week and some good reads! :) I was looking for some people's opinions on some questions, I do apologize if you are seeing this on more than one group you are in as I am trying to get various thoughts and opinions on this.

From what I have seen, most books that are about or even vaguely consisting of shapeshifters seem like there is only one or two types at a time. On top of that, they seem to typically consist of wolves, bears, lions, dragons, maybe the occasional tiger... Are there any books with all types of animal shifters or do they mainly focus on one type?

Is there any interest in an actual world of animal shapeshifters? Or do readers want more magical beings as well such as vampires, witches, and other mythical type beings and beasts?

Do readers tend to prefer a longer book or a series of shorter installments? I suppose the better question to ask would be Do readers feel more comfortable purchasing a book from a first time author if it is offered in shorter installments (therefore giving a cheaper price to "try" them out)? Or do readers prefer to just buy one larger book?

Thank you for your time and input. Any opinions you share are most appreciated!

[Aaron]

"Are there any books with all types of animal shifters or do they mainly focus on one type?"

Animorphs, for people that can shift into multiple different animals. If you mean features several different kinds of shifters...it's common enough in a general fantasy/Paranormal world that there may be a large number of shifter side characters of different varieties.

In general shifters are limited to just 1 animal.

[Sean Lookielook]

Yes, most shapeshifter books do focus on only one or two kinds. Some of the reasons are practical, but often it’s just a choice by the author. The choices of animals themselves are mostly limited to the sexier macrofauna – canids, felines, and dragons – with a smattering of birds, bears, and others. Part of the reason for this is curb appeal. A new author or series can market toward a ready-made audience if they write about werewolves or werecats. Some of this comes from the fables and myths from which these stories draw. There are centuries of stories about werewolves from all around the planet, for example, but relatively few about were-aardvarks. If you start to deviate from the accepted norms of shapeshifter species, the result can quickly become comical.

Also, if you start throwing around a bunch of different species when it isn’t necessary to the plot, it becomes meaningless filler. Most writers will pick their favorite one or two species out of convenience. That’s not to say you can’t include a panoply of were-creatures and supernaturals, as long as you can justify it in the worldbuilding. (I’m writing a novel at the moment that does just that, but I can get away with it because I’m poking fun at a lot of the paranormal romance tropes. At least, that’s what I tell myself.)

As to length, the most common format by far is still the long-form novel. Fantasy readers particularly love their long (300+ page) books and endless sequels. Ebooks have created a growing appreciation for shorts and novellas which might not otherwise be published, but they are still a very small part of the market. Hugh Howey and John Scalzi had some success with serializing their sci-fi novels, which were later bundled into one volume, but I haven’t seen hoards of other writers following suit. The full-length novel is still the best option, especially if you are going to query agents and pubs.

[Joanna Chaplin]

It's not a book and *most* of the shifters are cats, but there are others. http://clanofthecats.com/

The best best novels I've seen with shifters are the Raksura series by Martha Wells . She has that nice nonhuman but still human enough to empathize with thing that I usually look for in really well characterized aliens, but in fantasy.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/6559...

For a newbie author, I think the "self-contained, but with sequel hooks" novel works best. Nothing's worse than surprise cliffhangers. So whatever arc occurs in the first book or installment really ought to come to some sort of satisfying conclusion (beta readers can help you figure out whether or not your ending is satisfying). But don't answer every question. Leave a few dangling hooks. Then if the audience bites, then there's the sequel.

Frankly, though, everything is a trilogy these days. I'm starting to think more fondly of "set in same universe, different characters/slightly different setting" looser series, but that might just be reader ennui.

[Michele]

From what I've read - most authors choose animals that are predators - generally because they can get the most use out of that for the story.

A werecow might be possible, but how would that help in a plot? Especially when most shifting ends up like a superhero trait, having the animal forms be useful ones for fighting or at least escaping seems to make sense.

The Cheysuli series by Jennifer Roberson has quite a few different animals - wolves, birds of prey, lions, foxes, etc.

And the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris had both one-form shifters of various types and also general shapeshifters who could assume pretty much any life form.

I prefer big fat books and long series - as long as they don't get bloated or stale. If I see a serial-type story that interests me, I usually wait until it's done and put together in one book to buy it.

[Heather]

The Kate Daniel's Series starting with Magic Bites has all sorts of were-critters. They're broken into clans which usually include a variety of related animals (I think only 2 are one species specific- wolf and hyena). They have a Clan Heavy which includes any large non-cat species like bears and buffalo. Clan Nimble (or light, can't recall) has species like rats, foxes, and other small animals.

[Trike]

Outside of comics where shapeshifters are as common as orphaned superheroes, I would say most shapeshifter tales do concern werewolves.

As others have posted, there are lots of novels which feature entire groups (or even worlds) full of shapeshifters. Jack Chalker's The River of Dancing Gods series has a few shapeshifters, at least one character was a nonspecific "were-blank" who would change into whatever animal was closest at the time. I recall he turned into a poodle once.

I'm not one for long series. I've abandoned at least 99% of all series I've read, but I'm an outlier in that regard. As long as you can keep it fresh, I don't see why a series couldn't run for a while.

[Joanna Chaplin]

Trike wrote: "I recall he turned into a poodle once."

There was a werepoodle in one of the humorous books I read. They used him shifting to scare folks. And it was very scary, until he got all the way through the transformation. He wasn't a very big poodle.

And then there's this. http://www.worldbuilders.org/stretch-...
The bad, hot biker boy is also a were hedgehog.

[Alan]

I think the reason why some shifter books focus on one or two types of animals is so that the author can spend some time overlaying animal social patterns onto human behavior -- like all the werewolf books that focus on "pack" dynamics. When you have a bunch of different types of shifters, it just becomes like a superpower or a book with a bunch of talking animals (e.g., Spellsinger) because you can only focus on so many characters in one book.
Personally, from a first time author, I prefer self-contained stories. I am leery of committing to 300 pages of unfinished story before knowing anything about the author -- so I'm fine if it's the start of a series but less so if it's book 1 of a trilogy.