More Editing

This week, my proof reader brought to light some punctuation rules with regards to speech in my novel that I had previously been unaware of.  So I am once again trawling through my manuscript correcting these mistakes and there are a lot of them.  As I go through more seem to appear.  Where will it end?  How many more mistakes are there I wonder?  How many more times will I have to run through it?

 It's really scary doing this alone, without the expert advice of an agent or publisher's editor.  However, sometimes when I read published books they have odd mistakes in them.  I know they will have been scrutinised and rewritten several times and yet still there are mistakes.  It makes me wonder what chance I have.  But that's pessimistic talk and I'm not generally a pessimist.  I mustn't let it get to me. 

With me it's been mainly the rules where speech is broken up - the correct use of commas and full stops.  My proof reader suggested I look at these two links which have been really helpful. http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/punctuation-in-direct-speech

http://www.bookshedonline.co.uk/knowhow/dialogue-punctuation

It's so important to me to get all this right and have my manuscript looking as professional as possible.  This must be the bane of the Indie Author and there are so many people out there ready to edit/carve up/offer you advice for a small fortune.  I decided I didn't want that - not saying that's right or wrong - just not for me.  Do other Indie Authors do it completely alone?  I'm beginning to realise this quest is going to need a lot of faith in my abilities.