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What is B/C?
And the common language

So here's the big thing. A thread pops up in the PA&S or the B/C forums. The question is simple enough, and normally goes something like "What are these BC pet things? I've poked around a few threads and don't really get it."
The basic answer most people get is "They're pets that breed and grow" but this isn't really the best description, while completely accurate. The best description is long and complicated and is as follows.

A B/C pet is a "Breedable and/or Changing pet".
This is a picture that can be put in your signature of an animal, human or whatnot as a pet. It is not an item to be equipped but is instead a piece of artwork to decorate signatures, profiles, etc. and has unique characteristics. Breedable or Changing means that over time your pet will either change shape, be able to breed with others of it's kind, or both. Normally the "changing shape" is growing from a child to adult. You won't much be able to find a lion that turns into a donkey. But you may find objects turning into animals. Some of them require roleplay, others do not and many have the option available. There is a VAST world of roleplay in the B/C community. What exists in each shop is different.
You can also find B/C pets on other websites. Places like Dragcave for example. These pets require people to click on them to grow but the basic concept remains the same. Dragons grow through egg, hatchling, teen, and adult. Once they're adults they can be bred to other adults you own. Fun simple little hobby that has a massive niche here in the backwaters of the art community where the B/C resides.

Just art shops with plotlines?
The big difference between this kind of shop and say mini shops or art shops? If the pet doesn't breed or change form over time it's not a B/C shop! Many of the B/C shops around CAN seem like art shops with plot lines - especially the unique art human ones. But they MUST have a changing form or option to breed to be here, and many of the shops here do not have roleplay.

Learn to speak B/C;
So now for the lingo. First let's go down the basics.
B/C pet: Breeding/Changing pet
I/T: Interest Thread. A place found in the PA&S. Often a place
where shops hire colorists, line artists, etc. and garner interest to their shop before opening it and selling pets.
PA&S: Pricing, Assistance and Suggestions, a subforum to Minishops. Now recently re-named just "Pricing and Suggestions".
Flat Sale: A flat sale is where a number of pets are created in advance and offered for purchase to the public. These frequently are done on a first come-first serve basis.
Flaffle: A cross between a flatsale and a raffle. You post with a list of preferences for the pre-made pets and you're entered into a raffle. You get whichever pet is still available and highest up on your list if your ticket gets drawn.
Line art/Line art set: A set of inked line-only or sketch artwork frequently used to create B/C shops. A set often consists of a basic growth from child to adult and frequently there are separate images for each gender.
Templates: A set of pre-made shading that is layered over every B/C pet in a given shop regardless of color.
Inking/Inkist: Someone who takes sketch images and puts high-quality digital black lines over them with a transparent background.
Colorist: Someone who colors the images in a B/C
shop and sometimes edits the lineart and templates to create jewelry or other changes.
Cert: Certificate. Most pets come with a background "certificate" image stating info about the pet like the shop name, owner and colorist, perhaps gender and other types of info. It's litterally a form of identification for your pet.
Certist: Either someone who places pets created by colorists onto a certificate and fills out the info OR (less common) someone who creates a certificate for a shop.
Uncert: The image of a pet at full-size without a certificate behind it.
Gram: A gram is a single-image pet usually in the form of a permanent teenager/child stage or a plushie. These are sent out as gifts around holidays and normally carry the same colors as every other one of it's kind. Because of the nature of a gram they are normally not elligible for use in the shop such as RP or breeding but also cary a very low price tag and can be addressed to an individual.
CYO: A pet that is either "Color" or "Create" your own. This means you receive lines provided by the shop and you make your own pet as you see fit within their rules.
CYOA: This is NOT to be confused with CYO. CYOA stands for Create your Own Adventure and is a game held in threads where multiple options are given and you go on an "adventure" by selecting one of the options to advance the story.
Meta/Metaplot: This is an event that is roleplay related. It focuses normally on the main plotline of the shop's roleplay or a large event that effects all the characters involved. (An example would be something like a comet falling or something like that.) Occasionally it can focus on only one part of the shop and be a meta plot for only that group of pets. Sometimes there are prizes for participation and pets that arise from the event.
Pixel Pet: A pet done in a style that uses small individual pixels to create a sort of "sprite" image like what you might see on a gameboy. Dragcave has pixel-style pets.
RP: This should be mildly obvious, but... This stands for "Roleplay". It is when you take your pet or character and act like them in a pre-set environment. Always try to be creative and type clearly if you participate in these!

Shop Varieties, Art, etc.

So there are a large number of different types of shops and it can get a little confusing at times. As such here's a run-down on what you can expect to see from a shop. Most shops tend to have between THREE and FIVE stages however I have seen ranges from one to seven.

Shop Types;

Human Shops
These are generally shops that focus heavilly on the RP aspect of the shop and character design and building. These shops are more about the pets as individuals, and are frequently semi-unique or unique lineart. Gijinka shops fall into this category as well. These shops are growing in popularity but still remain the most intensive group as a whole.

General Animal Shops
Most animal shops are focused more on the species featured in their thread or a "group" of creatures such as prides of lions then they are the individual. Roleplays in this setting focus more on the creation of tribes (prides, packs, herds) and the tribes themselves then on the individual creature. This is not to say that character development is not present but the general roleplay setting is focused more on the group then the singular. These shops are commonly line art. These are the most common shops around, but are also the most diverse.

Candy Shops
I classify most "pixel" shops, shops without a significant background or setting, etc. under this. Their main focus is pumping out pretty pets and letting you put piles of them in your sig or journal or what have you for not a whole lot of cash in most cases. Fun and easy shops to get into with just a post during a flatsale.

Artwork types;

Pixel Shops
Pixel art looks like this!
These commonly are very small simple sprite-like animals that appear on a cert. The cert is often semi-custom with toys, dwellings, furniture, food, etc.
There are some exceptions, such as Matope, who have "pixel" style pets of a different sort all together.
These are usually the cheapest but some require upkeep such as feeding or caring for your pixel pet.

Lineart Shops
This is the most common form of art in B/C. They have a set of lines (and normally shading) that are used for every pet. The lines are sometimes altered with "edits" that are unique to that pet. The color is almost always very different depending on the pet. Unless you order a custom pet there is normally no customization for a pet's cert other than name but the art is of a generally higher quality.

Unique art shops
These have different art for each stage of each pet. The cert is the only thing that remains the same in these shops. Each picture is drawn individually of all others. This means you aren't likely to see your pose or lines on someone else's pet and you get something very unique but is more expensive and slightly less identifying because of it.


Pet Requirements;

Free Shops/CYO Shops
These are far and few between. They do exist however. These shops provide line art, to YOU, for free. Then you create your own pet based off of it. Their art may or may not have shading, and you may or may not be able to edit the lines. Some of the shops require you to come to them for your pet to be certed, others allow you to cert your pet yourself but require you post in a certain thread. There are so few of these that there are really no norms.

Activity-required shops
These are shops that require you to be active in-thread to either keep or grow your pet. Many shops have an extra stage that requires special amounts of activity to achieve but others require you hang around or they take your pet and give it to someone else. As such you should always read each shop's rules!

Roleplay Required Pets
These shops require you to roleplay in their world as/with your pet. This can be a requirement for growth or to keep your pet. Many unique lined shops are this way, but others are as well. Be cautious when taking on these roles because you likely won't get a refund!

How to do the B/C Jig
Or how the pets are made.

So the second most common question is; "How is it all done?"
How do you get the pets colored, on their cert and grown? Well it's all done by hand in every shop by a team of hard-working folks collectively called "Staff".

It starts with lineart and a template. That image gets colored by a colorist. Generally all stages of a pet are done by the same colorist at once so that the owner will not have to wait for growths if the colorist vanishes. Sometimes a colorist edits the lineart by adding lewelry or wings to the animal. Then it generally get handed off to the Manager.

The manager takes the pets the colorist makes and puts 'em together into an event for you, be it a flatsale, a raffle, an auction or something free. Then after the pet is sold it gets handed off to the Certist.

A certist is someone who certs pets. This can be the colorist who colored the pet, a different colorist, a shop manager or someone who is hired specially for the job. Jobs are often shared in a B/C thread. This person takes the image that the colorist created, puts it on the cert and fills in the info. Generation, name, owner, parents, type, creation date etc. Then it gets uploaded to an image hosting site with a specific title like "Boko.png".

Time passes and it's time for a pet to grow! Well the best way this happens is the pet gets re-certed or the growth certs are already done. Then very quickly, the manager or certist takes down the old file from the image hosting site and uploads the new one with the same name. The link is the same so when the person next checks on thier pet it appears to have "magically" grown up one stage! Huzzah!

This is repeated for however many stages there are. So if you're wondering why your pet grows a little late or how these shops do it, now you know. It's not some automated .php mechanism. It's lots of hard work done by dedicated hands. :3

The next few posts are dedicated to how to start your own shop. These are a little harsh and scolding so if you have delicate sensibilities I would suggest you stay away from reading this. If you do not have large amounts of time or gold to dedicate to your shop, don't open one. If you are trying to open a shop just to make some gold, go get a colorist/line editor position in an interest thread in the PA&S instead because your shop will fail worse then lighting yourself on fire. If you are a dedicated entrepreneur who enjoys B/C pets for what they truly are, read on!

How to Start a Breedable Changing Pets Shop

Allow me to establish this. If you can make it through all of this while maintaining an absolute cool and apply the advice to your own shop, chances are you can have a semi-successful B/C shop. B/C takes a sincere ability to recognize your own mistakes and fix them. There are too many B/C shops for you to be successful with something third-rate. Every time a shop closes, five more try to open and they WILL eat you alive! Running a breedables shop is NOT EASY. So put on your learning cap!

Step One, Reeead
Read this:

Why? Because Djubre is amazing it is the best thing I have ever seen on gaia in five+ years and will give you an idea of some of the things I'm talking about here. It's rough and blunt and drills into your brain the basics. Also I sort-of reference some thoughts from it throughout this guide so read it. If nothing else, it's worth the laugh. 8D Also read this guide. XD

Step Two, Concept
First, you need a concept. This concept determines everything about your shop. It can be as simple as "Cute birds with silly hats" or as complicated as "Epic landscape with people living in the desert for a long time with much suffering backstorybackstory gods blessing them with creatures, humans destroy planet and creatures... So god brings back only the creatures immortalizing them blahblahblah and this is why we have this shop.

Your concept is your token. It's your pass into the B/C shop ring. Make it unique and interesting.
DO NOT MAKE ANOTHER CUTE CATS SHOP OR SWEET PUPPIES WITH FLOPPY EARS! Gaia has cat shops where the cats are wild, where they sit on pillows, where they are lynx hybrids, bobcats, Persians, witch cats, cats that shoot electricity, cats with rings orbiting them, cats that catch mice, winged cats, hybrid cats, elemental cats, ghost cats, cats in baskets, cats that only show up in pairs... HOLY CRAP THERE ARE A LOT OF CATS! DX There are just as many bloody effin dragon shops, dog shops, equine shops, Pokemon shops, anthro shops... Do something DIFFERENT. You think we need that one more cat shop around? Maybe your cats grow out of tacos and have long fur and spikes out of their backs. (Psst. That idea is totally mine!) THEY'RE STILL CATS THOUGH! So look around and do something nobody has goin' around right now. It can even be a common concept. Look at my shop, Golden Stables. We do Chocobos. We breed chocobos like in the game FFVII and you'd expect to see a dozen chocbo shops around. What makes mine unique? (Aside from the fact that it's the only one around that's active.) We have a racing system. It's not required but it provides something no other B/C shop has - a chance to create a champion chocobo by training it and racing it around the track for prizes while other people gamble on the races.

So your concept for a pet can even be something common. As long as it's a unique experience. And NO saying you have a friendly attitude and unique people and your art can't be found elsewhere is NOT unique. That's ALL of the B/C, thanks. THINK HARDER! And try not to do TOO much. If your shop has 15 unrelated species and three art styles it gets overwhelming and lacks focus.

Step five, the interest thred
So you get your lineart, however you do. But you're nowhere near done. Now you need banners, a certificate, an image hosting site to put everything, maybe templates or inking and maybe you even want someone else trustworthy to help you color or manage in your shop. Don't understand those terms? Then you missed step one on this guide. ;D

So you go to the Pricing Assistance and Suggestions forum. And you set up an interest thread. A what? Well this thread should be a comprehensive rundown on your shop concepts, a place to manage and keep track of any unfinished work, get any help you need and gather, well, interest in your shop to see if it's even worth opening! Reserve 16 posts at MOST to cover the front page. Any more looks n00bish and you don't need 'em. So if you read the alternate guide in post one you'll have a general idea of structuring your shop and layout and such like that. I offer some minor deviations from it.

Post Layouts. I Suggest this for your post headers.

Post One; Intro, links related to the shop, updates
Post Two; Rules/FAQ
(Generally stick to rules more then the FAQ.) And HAVE THESE. They are important to keeping your thread clutter free and safe.
Black and Greylists. This is important because people in the B/C and art community in general can just plain old be dumb-asses. A grey list is essential for people to understand who can/can't participate in events, for how long, and who is banned from the shop permenantly (and why) so that if they come back on a mule they can be known as a complete troll. Don't have a whitelist. You're just going to put something in it like "Staff, the lineartist, all our regulars and my LOVING BOYFRIEND GEORGE!". ...Nobody cares and we all know that the staff and regulars are liked and welcome in the shop.
Post Three; Backstory, maps, roleplay stuff, concepts
Post Four; Artwork. Samples, examples, growth charts, etc.
Post Five; Hiring (colorists, certificate makers, thread managers, bumper, blahblahblah)
Post Six; Freebies/contests
(HAVE THESE. Nobody wants to go into a thread, hang around and get nothing. Everyone wants something. These can range from "Post first on X page" to "Elaborate game like bingo". But either way, free pets = interest!)
Post Seven; Links to your shop and banners for signatures, etc.
Post Eight; Links to other shops that you support or have affiliated with you.
Posts Nine & TenReserved for anything you might need later.
Delete posts 11-15

This is just a guideline. In some shops, like mine, you may find you need more posts then that. For example, I have a separate post for breeding and a post for racing because they're big parts of my shop. Fill it all out, be sure to lay out everything you need clearly and cleanly. I have seen everything from money to free pets to avatar art offered for every service from writing a story to creating a cert. Be creative and show off a LOT.

REMEMBER: The PA&S is NOT THERE for you to sell your pets! DON'T SELL PETS IN YOUR I/T! You can give out freebies but no sales! This includes AUCTIONS. If you can sell your pets then you need to move to the B/C shops forum! If you're selling your work in an I/T the moderators CAN AND WILL move your topic and/or give you a warning... And it is terribly unfair to those I/Ts not yet ready to sell their art.

Generally a thread like this sits up from one to five months depending on the work involved, the interest in the work, etc. Give out lots of free stuff, lure people in and come in about five times a day to bump. Don't over-bump because the PA&S is slow.
When you have this set up, let it run it's course. Converse often, put a banner in your signature, visit lots of other B/C threads, drag in your pals and lure people in. When you feel you have enough people interested (This can be five or it can be twenty but don't expect a lot quickly) and all your work (art, templates, certs, staff, etc.) is done, open a shop in the B/C forum.

Some things to Remember about your stay in the PA&S
During your time with your I/T and perhaps before it you need to decide how much to price things and what - if any - the owner requirements are.
Most shops that are not unique art do not go for more then 10K per flatsale pet since all that happens is color change. Customs and auctions go much higher but always consider what people are actually willing to pay.
Price based on the quality of your art not the time put in. If it takes you five hours for some reason to draw a single flatsale pet, but it doesn't come out as good as some shop that charges 3K per pet... Don't try charging more than the better shop because it takes you longer. People will figure it out and go elsewhere.
Activity requirements are fine as long as they are reasonable. Not every Tom, d**k or Jane wants to RP their puppy intensely in a training environment just to keep it. Similarly, when I see a shop with extensive RP requirements AND an additional fee per stage I lollercoaster my way into a reasonable thread. Requirements can be good, but especially for a brand new shop, the harder it is to get, grow or keep a pet... The less likely people wanna stick around. So your art needs to be pretty spectacular to be a new shop with high activity requirements.
Similarly, if you're running an ordinary shop with fluffy cats or pixel mice and request an additional fee to grow a pet... It looks kind of stupid unless there is a good reason for it. (An example would be an Eevee requiring an evolution stone to grow.)
Also a note about hiring
Just because you open a shop and start hiring doesn't mean people want to work for you. Consider the following concepts;
Most people have access to a library, school or home computer with enough internet speed to run Booty Grab. An hour playing booty grab can get you 10K or more depending on how dedicated you are to playing it.
This means that if your pets have 10 stages and take 5 hours to color and another three to fulfill your heavy edit requirements and then it sells for 25K... They could be getting almost 100K from booty grab for that amount of time. If you are offering a manager position consider your pay... If you offer 50K/mo to manage (a moderate amount)... That's really not that much when put into the 100K/week booty grab context.
So why would people apply to work in your shop? The main draw money-wise is customs for colorists. A custom can drag in millions if it's crazy enough in a good shop. And someone who is managing may get free pets to trade with other shops with pets they want. But the real draw is the shop itself. If you're not making money off of it, then let's consider the benefits of the shop.
Is it a successful place so their pets will actually sell and get attention? Do you offer a high pay-rate? (Many shops take a cut for certists or managers.) Is the art creative in concept and fun to work with? Is the shop community good? Is the backstory fun and engaging? Are there people in the shop they know? Do they find the pets/concept attractive enough to want to slave at it to help make the shop a success? Because those are the things people apply to a B/C shop for.
When in your interest thread, expect to go many pages before you even see another poster, let alone an applicant! Most shops die VERY quickly before even holding their first sale. People want to work in a shop because they like the shop, not because they want the gold. If your shop is severely under-developed, expect people to ignore it for a while. Don't expect applicants until your shop has some attention and creative sparkle.

Guilds and How the B/C Uses 'Em

A guild is a very useful thing to have if you run a B/C shop that isn't just a sigcandy shop.
It allows you to have a private staff subforum to openly share ideas and events. This is great for organizing a themed event as certain people can claim certain pets to create for it.

It also allows a place to hold roleplays so they do not disrupt the main flow of the thread. This means there's no RP rules for the main thread and casual owners can still have that place open for chatting freely.

If you have many colorists or such, a place for each colorist to have thier own customs/breeding thread with different specifications on what they can/will/won't do and for how much gold.

It can also be a good way to keep track of owners lists, pet stats, work loads, previous events, cannon(cosplay) customs that have already been done, and many other things.

As a guild owner it gives you greater flexibility on what goes on your front page, and allows you to keep track of who is interested, who owns pets, etc. It also allows you to send out guild notices and is a useful tool in B/C shops.

As a member it allows you to connect with other people involved in the shop, easilly find out who is on staff and contact them, find people for roleplay and breedings, and make it easier to get customs and such.

All around? I approve of well-maintained B/C guilds. :3

Here will go credits when it's not 5AM. XD

For now, Djubre's guide;

Belongs to Djubre.