Why do you do this to me? Why? You just wanted a holiday rant, didn't you? Sneaky werewolf.
There aren't any genre rules. There have never been any rules and there never will be any rules. Readers expectations are based on personal preferences and vary widely. Some readers want dark, others to avoid it. Some readers can't abide romantic sub-plots, others seek them out. Some readers insist on lots of battle action, others are bored by battle action. Some readers read nothing but epic, pre-industrial secondary world fantasy, others read only contemporary fantasy, others read everything.
The most common form of story in SFFH is a structure utilizing suspense elements. Suspense elements have distinctive forms but they are not rules. They are tools that can be used. Form is being confused with function. It's an effective threat -- a person can say that if you don't write the story the way he thinks best then readers will be angry. And he's right. Some readers will be angry -- about however you write the story, including the way being touted as a rule. I've had friend authors told that Asian fantasy doesn't sell, dark fantasy doesn't sell, violent fantasy doesn't sell, non-violent fantasy doesn't sell, SFFH with a female protagonist doesn't sell, anything that doesn't have vampires in it doesn't sell, hard SF doesn't sell, comic SF doesn't sell, historical fantasy doesn't sell, steampunk doesn't sell, and on and on. You should kill off main characters, you shouldn't kill off main characters, you should have a very detailed magic system, you should not have a very detailed magic system, you should have psychological horror instead of gore, you should have gore instead of psychological horror. You should have aliens, you should avoid aliens, etc. As always, these pronouncements (and yes, sometimes they come from industry people who are guessing or relying on anecdotes from booksellers -- we have the notorious let's whitewash YA fantasy covers because having non-white kids on the covers doesn't sell idea for instance,) are directed outwards to imaginary visions of readers as one concentrated and monochrome mass. If you look at the actual market, the variance is clearly visible. If you talk to enough readers outside a small community and your own circle, the variance is clearly visible. You can as an individual author target specific personal preferences of one type and say that you are going for that audience and build the story to that preference. But the categories and sub-categories are not constrained by such things.
As for our own personal preferences as readers on inner content, I don't have any. I do, though, gravitate to some forms of stories more frequently than others. I'm more likely to read comic material than straight horror, for instance, but I do read horror. And I don't expect those stories to have certain content for me. And in either case, I don't come in with a shopping list that I expect the author to provide. One of the things that has always struck me as strange is SFFH readers who do have very specific personal preferences, voluntarily choose books that clearly before even being read are not going to be able to satisfy those personal preferences, and then get upset that their personal preferences aren't met as if it's a surprise. And yet, that's readers.
But authors do not make a promise to readers that their individual personal preferences are going to be satisfied. Authors make a story. The story hopefully connects with a number of people, but again, can't connect with all the people, or even reliably with a majority of potential buyers. The search for formulas that will ensure that the story will do this impossible thing is a result of anxiety and not accepting how people actually interact with and process written fictional stories in the full marketplace, IMO.
So there, you got my usual rant. And you don't get to growl at me about it, either, because you used the evil pretend words genre rules right in the thread title. You knew what would happen. You knew my personal preferences would be to not resist the evil words. You made me dent my forehead! Howl in shame. (Just kidding -- I've had an awful day and am high on sugar.)
(and sorry for your bad day. Tomorrow will be better!)
