Yes, I wasn’t kidding when I said it would take a lot longer than expected…  Four proofs down the line, and there are probably still a few errors in there:  evidence suggests they will be mainly capital letters which should be lower case…  To my shame, it took that many proofs to spot the error of writing ‘principle’ when it should have been ‘principal.’   But on the  positive side, I am now getting to spot errors in other authors’ work.  I’m guessing it is a rare book that makes your shelves without the odd little mistake, since I have spotted some in all of the fiction and history books I have been reading since I started copy editing and proofreading my own.  So I won’t feel bad if a few errors slip through the proverbial net…

And so if you are self publishing, I would make sure that you don’t set in concrete your book launch date until you have the final product in your hands.  I have an awful lot of lovely postcards saying that ‘Death Benefit’ is available from July.  We may yet make it for the end of the month, but it will be a close run thing…