Before you can write, I believe that you should read. A lot. It is only then that you can understand what works and what doesn't. Grammar and spelling are important, but I can overlook the occasional blip, if the general story is OK.

Forget about BDSM etc for the moment. We do not just read/write BDSM stories. I also like Sci Fi, adventure, Fantasy, cop sagas, horror, etc. However, the main thing for me, regardless of the story that I am following, either a serial killer/cop saga or the adventures of a star ship that accelerates close to C with a hold full of cryogenically frozen colonists, even the crew of a 18th century war ship, is the charector depiction and the storyline. Do I care about these people? Do I care about their adventure?

And that is the true craft of the story teller. It has been the same since travelling bards came to tell of heroes and gods at the court of a local lord, Shamans imparted the oral history of of their peoples around a camp fire, or budding authors who post their work electronically.

If the writer can craft a world populated with good charectors and plot, that is believable, or at least enjoyable for the reader, then it doesn't matter how fantastic the original premis is. I mean, would you really read about people who lived on a giant disc, hurtling through space on the backs of four giant elephants, who were themselves standing on the back of a giant turtle, unless the writer could make you care?

Rant over