Del Rey editor Mike Braff has a message for all you submitters of fantasy lore: “I’ve identified several negative tropes that we see far too much in fantasy submissions.” They are:

The Prophetic Orphan
The Expository Sewer
A’pos’tropheus the De’stroy’er

He talks about them here.

Note the reaction of one respondent:

“If I come across one more Dark Lord, I will become one.”

We can’t have that, now, can we?