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And while I'm on a rant about the problems on writing fantasy ...
Many writers try to cheat and get the best of both worlds. They think that because they're writing a fantasy about vampires and/or werewolves and/or wizards & witches and/or elves, they are starting from the same place as any contemporary fiction author. Unless you're writing fan-fiction, (I feel like ringing a really harsh buzzer here: ) you are Wrong! It's even more wrong now than it was not that many years ago.
Some years ago you could write a story about vampires and the reader would start with a pretty good idea of what to expect. Stick to the traditional rules and the reader would probably stay with you. But these days there are many variations, even if you limit yourself to the reasonably well know variations. So a writer of vampire fiction is at least back to raw fantasy, letting the reader know exactly what sort of vampires these ones are and what rules exist now. I might even say that the writer faces the harder battle of making sure they don't inadvertently let their reader make wrong assumptions based on some variation the writer isn't even aware of. By writing name-your-standard-mythical-species fiction you will be constantly in battle with the reader's preconceived ideas of what they should be. Some do it well, but it is yet another hurdle in the path of telling a good story.
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