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No characters that are thinly disguised avatars of the author's pet cat or dog. 7 foot tall bipedal cat-like or dog-like creatures don't fool us - especially when Kitty or Fido has been thanked before your family in your Acknowlegement page.
No Mary Sue characters.
All planets do not have earth-standard gravity or air mix. Remember that when designing aliens.
Sex scenes do not disguise lack of plot.
The readers will buy most faster-than-light travel IF you take the time to make up a believable technical explanation for it. We appreciate the effort. (My personal favorite is Asaro's imaginary number.)
Don't get bogged down with excessive descriptions of speed ratios of various types of missiles/lasers/graser/whatever when describing battles in space (I'm taking to you, David Weber).
Remember that a hole in the spaceship wall sucks everything out, not just the air so weapons which would do so shouldn't even be allowed on the ship in the first place.
Give the reader at least a throwaway explanation why all the characters seem to be speaking the same language.
Remember the communications lag time, or else give us an explanation why there isn't one.
Remember that sentient beings are supposed to be living in the cities and worlds you are creating, so don't go all Blade Runner on the locales. Usually, if it's sentient, it needs sunlight and surroundings that are esthetically pleasing within its cultural definition.
Use people who read science fiction as your beta readers - not just your best friends. They might pick up the most glaring errors.
Remember that people live in spaceships for extended periods of time. People have smells. Food had smells. Machinery has smells. Air is a commodity, not a given, in space. Remember the minutia of life.
Everyone does not have the same body shape. Unless the society is a dictatorship, people don't tend to wear the same type of clothes.
Not all cultures will have the same modesty concerns, but will probably be affected by heat and cold to some extent, or will have different degrees of "skin" fragility - take that into account when dressing your characters. Beings that are cold-blooded should be wearing some type of covering when in cold climates if they have any sense, not just letting the cold make them comatose.
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