It could be the issue because we're on page three, there are lots of people contributing to the thread, and we don't go back to read the second sentence of your first post before we read each subsequent post. But... thanks for clarifying that people fall into different groups for me. That was really useful.
O.M. You are being trolled. Obviously there are trends and no absolutes, but some people like to waste everyone's time by continuously pointing this out. Just ignore it.
Words cannot describe how much I hate that movie. No. My guy friends don't become more than friends. With me, you're either in the friend pile, or in the "possibility" pile, and the two don't cross over. I don't date my friends or have sex with "friends". I don't think of them that way. (If they think otherwise, I don't want to know.) It's pretty simple: we're either dating, or we're not, and I wouldn't date anyone who took that damn long to get up the nerve to ask me out. ETA: And one of those piles isn't any more important than the other to me. They're just different roles. That said, in a relationship, I don't want my significant other to be my best friend, either. I already have a best friend. ETA: As to the question from the OP, characters matter to me first. I'll follow a well-written character to the end no matter what, but if a plot is stronger than the characters it happens to, I'm out. The characters and settings have to be believable, otherwise the whole thing is pointless. I also don't like authors who make me do too much of the work. That's what I've paid the author to do by buying the book. I'm just there to relax, and if I want to use my creative brainpower to make up a story or fill in details, I'll invest that creativity in my own book. I read fiction to be entertained, and I read non-fiction to think.
The things I look at a story that I find enjoyable. Engaging characters that drive the story forward. The story is written with some degree of awareness to the reader, and doesn't try to use words that are classed to high for the story, or make it try to seem 'more' than it really is. Don't use a 10$ word when a 1-2$ word will do just fine. Don't fill in plot holes by having characters/objects that are convenient for things to work out for the story in the long run. If it wasn't established in the first half, then it sure as hell shouldn't just appear out of the blue in the second. Keep continuity, without having to reread sections to understand why something seems off with anything. There you go, I keep it simple. As long as everything works in harmony together and is engaging and interesting, then I will have no problem reading it.
This is so completely different from the way I experience relationships that it's blown my mind. Thanks for putting it into words. New perspective! (will edit in more on-topic once I'm at my laptop, I just wanted to say that) I don't think I'm going to be saying anything others haven't adequately brought up by this point, but here's my opinion anyway. Good stories don't have a gender. Neither do bad ones! Or all the ones in between. Anyone can find anything entertaining based on a ton of different factors, and gender may or may not be one of them for any given person. I know my mom has read and watched things she wouldn't otherwise be super interested in because it had a cool FMC. An acquaintance of mine on twitter really enjoys Once Upon A Time largely because it has a plentiful diversity of female characters. I and every other queer person I know has at some point watched a show that was admittedly kind of trash just because we head there was even mildly queer content. But are "it has a cool FMC" or "it has a lot of female characters" or "it has queer characters" the sole deciding factors on whether these people end up actually liking these stories? Nope. There's so, so much more that goes into it, and most of those things have nothing to do with gender.
Simple answer: That it's good. A well-written novel with developed characters and an engaging plot will draw anyone inclined to read for pleasure to it, so long as it's in a genre that interests them.
Not exactly male vs female, but my book is definitely tilted towards masculine readers. Doesn't have to be, but I don't think many feminine readers will want to hear about my MC's desire for a big-titted broad.
"When we detatch ourselves from what we are, we are nothing" - Some Guy Write the story for its sake. Let the moneymen do the market thing. I answered this post way back before it got yanked into the male vs female, spy vs spy BS. Again. Big titties? Fine. I like big titties, little titties, whatever looks good on a particular woman. I really don't care if someone else agrees or considers it inappropriate. I own it. I just like the word. It would work for me for lots of other things, like food. Cheese Titties sounds delicious. Fine. If potatoes were called pussy, I'd eat em. What people like is what they like. What people buy is what they're told, by marketing. Take that issue to the Marketing Forum. The gender issue is stupid because there is no gender. Man was made in the image of woman. Life on this planet is female until it mutates into male. Get... It... Right.. I am a female washed with chemicals to make my gonads drop, my clitoris distend and fuse with the rest of the vulva structure, and to make me more aggressive. I am purpose made to push my mutated clitoris into a normal female. My entire autonomic existence drives me to evaluate, identify, and pursue this purpose. Everything else can be done by females, full stop. Whatever problem anyone has with what men do, or want, or say, is still going to have to accept that. The day some evil genius figured out how to manipulate men by convincing them to feel guilty about their only purpose, and women to be embarrassed by providing for that purpose, is a day of total abomination. Our perspective on what we are is so twisted. We did it in a matter of centuries. Congratulations, but we're not done. Total success cannot be achieved until we're gone. Keep up the good work. Keep us detached. Or stop all of it! What do you hate? Today's man isn't supposed to hate gay men. Today's woman still resents her mutated self, even though she didn't before. People aren't here for that, or we wouldn't be here at all. Bigger picture. (I'll just boilerplate this and jam it in wherever you guys start going at each other - get over it.)
Coherence clarity and humour. I enjoy down to earth stories that make a point and tell me something new I did not know about.
Our bodies know more than we do. we just listen less. I'm glad you discovered a little more about nature.
Here's a simple solution. Ask for beta readers on social media. All beta readers must state "male" or "female", because your target audience is men and women. This effectively removes non-binary people from the target audience. An author's work is not meant to be political correct. It is not supposed to be a SJW's propaganda. It is just meant to tell a story from the author's perspective. If the author just happens to be a SJW, then all the "social justice" crap will get thrown in there, because the author wants to be perceived as "tolerant" for the sake of moral superiority. Your male and female beta readers will read your story and critique it. Receive the reviews from your beta readers, and read them. Categorize the reviews by sex/gender. The "male" reviews will go in one pile; the "female" reviews will go in another pile. Examine the male reviews. Examine the female reviews. Form an opinion of what men and women like. Generalize. The initial group of men and women who like your work may be generalized to a larger group of men and women who like your work. Great, you now have a very specific fan base. There you go, now you know what men and women like, and you have evidence to back it up. Obviously, your sample doesn't cover all men and women. It just covers men and women in your sample and the men and women in the world who think like the men and women in your sample.