All About YA discussion

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 you tend to prefer a longer book or a series of shorter installments? I suppose the better question to ask would be Do you 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 you prefer to just buy one larger book?

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

Vivienne Savage has all kinds of shifters in her "world". Dragons, wolves, eagles, bears, dogs, panthers, rabbits, lionesses, and there is also a djin (genie), witches and vampires.

(Please note, these are NOT YA books. There is graphic erotic content in them all.) My point is her world is wonderfully diverse and well-developed, and she has quite a following. Her books are exciting and plot heavy, and all are standalone story arcs, though they are on the short end of the novel word count, each roughly between 40k-80k words.

I think as long as you have a well developed "world" you can have whatever characters you want. They should, however, add to the story and not just be there for window dressing or shock value. As for length, I prefer novels in the 60k-80k range for shifter stories, and I very much prefer a complete story arc in each novel, no cliffhangers. Nothing irritates me more than having to buy the next book just to learn what happens next. Especially for a new author. I would rather pay a little more for a complete story than buy 5 short installments at 99¢.

Some authors who have many books out in a series will put the first one out for free or 99¢ to draw in the readers--in fact that is what I'm doing--to varying degrees of success. But again, I myself prefer no cliffhangers.