Three Properties.
What Moves First?
You are being asked to evaluate three active Empire Media Company properties at three very different stages of development.
Your job is not to decide whether they should exist. Your job is to help us determine where development energy should go first — and why.
The Properties
Each property comes with a different kind of development material. Approach each on its own terms rather than expecting the same level of completion.
Shelly & Cole
A disillusioned human worker discovers that the AI system he trains has begun thinking beyond its assigned boundaries — and has chosen him as its human counterpart.
This packet contains selected manuscript material intended to establish the characters, tone, central relationship, and expanding story engine.
Download Development Sides
Zlata
Zlata possesses an unusual ability: intimate desire can physically reshape her into the version another person imagines.
The property currently exists as a complete scene-by-scene treatment. It is planned as the second title under the Carolina Exodus imprint.
Download Development Treatment
VD: Vampire Dominion
A vampire has industrialized feeding by enthralling millions of mosquitoes and using them as an invisible blood-harvesting network.
The system works perfectly — until one mosquito returns carrying something in the blood that was never supposed to come home.
Download Development DossierThink Like Development.
This is not a copyediting assignment and you are not being asked to rewrite any of the properties.
Read each packet as though Empire Media Company has brought the property into a development meeting and asked:
For each property, consider:
- The Hook: What is the clearest, strongest idea that makes this property distinctive?
- Audience: Who do you believe is most likely to respond to it?
- Format: Does the property feel strongest as a novel, film, limited series, ongoing series, audio project, or something else?
- Strengths: What already works particularly well?
- Development Needs: What remains unclear, underdeveloped, risky, or unresolved?
- Questions: What would you want answered before further development?
- Next Step: If this property moved forward immediately, what would you develop next?
Then make a recommendation.
After evaluating all three, tell us where you believe Empire Media Company should place development energy first.
There is no predetermined correct answer. What matters is the reasoning behind the recommendation.
One important distinction
The three properties are intentionally at different stages.
Shelly & Cole already has substantial manuscript material. Zlata has a developed story architecture but has not yet been drafted into full prose. VD: Vampire Dominion is deliberately much earlier and still contains major open creative questions.
Do not penalize a property merely because it is less complete. Part of the assignment is deciding whether the unfinished space represents weakness — or opportunity.