Caterino Publishing, from Idea to Reality

by Bob D. Caterino
(Greenville, South Carolina)

The Lulu.com cover of "The Last Serial Killer

Genre: Horror

Caterino Publishing is one story, I thought I would keep under wraps, until now. Well, if you really need to hear it, I warn you, it is a very boring story, but here it goes. I will brush through the years before my publishing company began.

I started to write professionally at a very early age, I was twelve but have been writing sketches since I was six, when I would put on shows in my garage for the neighborhood kids. This my friends was something right out of a Little Rascals Short, but back to my professional career. I sold three radio commercials that I wrote, preformed, produced as well as recorded for a college radio program with host John Nurookee at UPSLA College in East Orange, New Jersey.

At the age of thirteen I formed a comedy group called "The Attic Estate", (That's where we used to rehearse the sketches, in my attic) At seventeen I was asked to join a local television show, which aired on UHF on channel 68. This was before Cable folks. The show was called The Uncle Floyd Show. I did that for four years and walked out due to the fact that I was losing controlling rights to what I contributed to the show. Son after I left, the show went cable, and then aired for a year on CBS television.

Now I am twenty one and married a girl I met only one month prior to marrying her. (I am still married by the way thirty one years later.) still writing I was getting published in smaller magazines and for little pay. I decided to start the "Great American Novel." I made money performing in small clubs in New York City and bartending on the side.

The book was finished. I called it Growing Up Goomba," It took most of ten years of my spare time to write it. I was now thirty one and no publisher would touch it. Understanding that the publishing game is just that but remembering it is still a business, I kept pounding away at every door for another five years but no one was home. I called it a game for the simple reasons as follows. You can have the best book in the world and still know one is interested. You must follow the proper protocol. The literary agent, who takes fifteen percent, the editing of the book the way the agent wants it, the editing of the book the way the publisher wants it, and by the time you are done, it is no longer the book you had intended.

I am well in my forties; I kept polishing my manuscript as well as getting published in still, small magazines and publications. I was not getting any younger. I decided to sell my book, Goomba, as an E-Book.

I contacted Ebookmall.com and they were more then happy to get my book on their site. Yep for twenty dollars, anyone can get any thing on that site but you set your own price and get half of all the sales. Goomba, sold slowly, and I mean slowly, it sells one book after the first year. During the time I wrote Goomba, I decided to write a thriller with sexual overtones. I put that book on the e-book site as well. The book was called, "The Unleashing of Sara Miller." I used a pseudonym, a pen name, Shadow Parker. I sold one my first hour at a cheap price. I figured I would make up for sales, in volume.

I received an a fan letter from some person named Tony. Tony said, "Guys don't write erotica well, women do." I was now Miss Shadow Lynn Parker. I created a world for this erotic author two years before the movie, S1m0ne, starring Al Pacino. I gave this author life, a website, and many short stories for the readers of erotica to enjoy. Shadow Parker was a live woman who started to sell a thousand books a day. Parker was a five feet three, blonde who can still be googled today. I guess Tony was right.

I killed off the character, Parker but the woman started to become a legend. I killed her off a year later but still, she had a life of her own. I started to ignore the creation but thought it would be fun if Miss Parker became a Caterino fan what would happen. I did cross promotion using myself along with my creation, Miss Parker and it worked, Goomba started to sell. For the next three years both books were doing very well but keeping up the charade of Parker and doing my own writing as well would become a burden for me, so I killed off Parker for the final time.

The publishers now had an excuse not to publish my work. Because of my confessing to be Miss Parker, and writing such risqué material, I was now banned, persona non grata, to the publishing world.

In 2003 or 4, I am being attacked by people I don't know, people that seemed to be nuts to me. I was accused of stealing the title of my "Growing up Goomba," book by a television show with a similar name and an author who uses Goomba in his books. Knowing my book was at least fifteen years older then those celebrities; I ignore them and chalk it up to stupidity. The two books were still selling well for me as e-books so I was ok financially. For the next two years, I was bombarded with sales calls to publish my books as long as I paid them. I told them authors do not pay, they get paid.

In 2006, I was contacted by a new company called lulu.com. I started a small publishing company called Caterino Publishing. Lulu let s its members have a store as well as publish their books keeping the licenses for the books. I would copyright my two books, and publish them using the lulu mechanics.

Now selling for the first time as paperbacks and hard cover books, I was able to buck the system which black listed me from the beginning. I gathered up a lot of my short stories and published a new book called, "The Junk in my Trunk." This book was filled with stories, poems and work that I am very proud of. I started working on a forth book, "Son of Godfather." Son of Godfather was another comedy and I thought it was my best work. The jokes were all original material. It sold slowly but when I found most of the material being used on very popular radio shows and was never given credit, I decided then and their to place the comedy on a shelf and pull out the bigger guns.

"The Last Serial Killer," was an idea I had for many years, but my first love had always been comedy. Now was my chance to show the world, my new ideas in horror. I wrote the thing in a month. The ideas were inside me and I actually stayed at the keyboard for three days straight, took a few days off and another three days until I finished it. I started to edit it and it needed little editing. The original title was to be called Serial. I promoted the book for months as Serial. Someone decides to steal the title, (you can't copyright a title) and use the name serial. I then changed the name to "The Last Serial Killer." It reads like a movie with scene changes and flashbacks. I was so proud of it. Serial was published on Lulu on the Caterino store. I was now contacted by Amazon.com and they are now selling Junk, and Serial but the publishing rights are not a Caterino publishing company.

When Amazon re-published my work under another company's name, I let that go. When I sell books through lulu, on my store as Caterino publishing, the public gets more. I always add an alternate ending or some other tidbit, for my hard core fans. I didn't care who published my books as long as I was getting recognition for what I created.

I now exclusively sell only through Caterino publishers on lulu.com. If any large publishing company offers me a mint, I would not take the deal. I am happy publishing my way, what I write, when I write it.

I purchase a very small erotic company, a company with three employees, called Candy Publishing. Now, I have the better of two worlds. The erotica will be published under the Candy name; the other fiction will be published under the Caterino name.

To create your own art and be able to keep your dignity is what it is all about. I am going to expand to include new artists who are having a hard time getting published. I am still in the figuring out stages but soon.

Anyone can start a publishing company, even you. This is what you need. First get yourself a webpage and a logo. Now you are ready to read manuscripts by others as well as sell yourself. Once you are settled in, you keep long hours reading all that is sent to you. Be prepared, many will be unreadable. Keep it honest and give suggestions if you like the book. I used to charge a ten dollar reading fee which is cheap considering. Get a pay pal account where authors can buy your product. Create a contract for authors that you want to sell under your publishing company. As the book sells, you have any printer print the product. This is known as print on demand. You don't need to print a million books, when someone orders one you have it printed. Usually you get multiple orders so the printer you use can print up several. You get your cut, the author gets their cut, and the printer gets paid. This is also how you calculate the pricing for the book.

Good luck in your writing endeavors. There is room for all of us, not just the elite, bigger names. If you have any questions just ask. My email is authorbobbyd@yahoo.com Thanks and again, good luck.

Visit Bob's site.