Ugh...I Hate It When I Do That!

I was so excited to come home from East Park yesterday and find a Puralator sticker on my front door. I knew exactly what it was. The hardcover copy of my new book had arrived and I wasn't home! Figures, doesn't it? I couldn't pick the book up until after 5:30 but Jim and I decided to drive into town and get it because he knew I wasn't going to sleep until I had it in my hands. Once I had it, we decided that we should celebrate. We went to Moxie's in London and had dinner thanks to some kind neighbours who gave us a gift card. I did not look at the book until I got home around 10.
OMG.
There was an error or three. Two small ones and an OMG huge one. All that editing and re-re-proofreading (no, that is not a typo) and there it was grinning at me from the page. I almost cried. Now, this was MY fault. I made changes and I did not send it back to my proofreader because I had already forced her to proofread twice. Well, third time was the charm. However, since I decided to do it myself I should have been more careful as I was reading. The reminder from my DH that he has read books with far more (and way bigger) mistakes did not help. This was my book and I screwed up. Ouch.
So, be warned, all you self-publishing authors out there. I know how hard it is to re-read something you have read and edited five thousand times. I have discussed it here before. This is why I had my friend proofread for me. She had never read the books and she likes them. So I knew she would read carefully and catch stuff that my glazed eyes would miss. She did. Then I had to edit and change and hack away to make the book "better" and this is what happened.
If I can give only one piece of advice to a budding author at this moment: do not proofread your own material!
Other eyes that have never seen the manuscript will do a much better job. As authors, we already know what the book says. We wrote it. We miss the mistakes because we know what the sentence is supposed to say and our eyes play tricks on us.
We pay an awful lot of money to publish our books and most of us cannot afford to pay for extras so we are forced to do it ourselves. Finding friends that are good proofreaders is difficult. I lucked out. Sally is great. She never misses a thing. Knowing this, I should have thrown myself on her mercy and asked her to proofread just one more time. I will make sure next time.
In the meantime, thank you to everyone who will forbear to point out the screw-ups. I know they are there. I may need therapy, but I will get over it in time.
:D