I need to get this off my chest, so it'll get to be the first post on a topic I am certain I will revisit many times: why I choose to self-publish.

Warning: I'll possibly rant a bit.

You see, I am Norwegian, and the Norwegian publishing industry does not care for Fantasy.
In fact, the entire Fantasy genre, entire Comic genre AND all of «computer games» is grouped in with «children’s books».

Then comes the bias that «Fantasy is not true literature» and also the notion that «Fantasy does not sell».

I write because I love it. I don’t have the patience or the interest to fight anyone’s preconceptions on this.
If Norwegian publishers don’t want it, I won’t bother arguing with them.
BECAUSE: I am decent in math.

And that is why I write in English and am set on self publishing:

• We are 5 million people (5 562 363) in Norway ( I am using numbers from SSB here, as well as a rough guesstimate based on my overall knowledge of the demography. This is by no means scientific, but I don’t care, because it doesn’t have to be exact to give me potential numbers.
  
• If I assume most of my readers are women, between 20 and 39 years old, that gives me a total of 716016 (2023).
  Estimating that 80% of them read books (we do read a lot)- that gives me 572812,8 people.
  BUT I also guesstimate that only 20% read fantasy – and this reduces my overall target audience to 114562,560
  
• To give me a round number I’ll assume I have a potential Norwegian market of 100.000.
  The sad truth is that I can hardly assume selling to all of them, so I’ll set a bold conversion rate (people buying my book) of 10% – Voilá: in the best of worlds my book will peak at 10000 copies sold.
  
  When comparing the numbers from a specifically Norwegian demographic with how my target demographic behaves on platforms like Amazon – writing in English and self publishing seems the only logical choice if I want my book to be read.
  (I do. I really want people to read my book, so that it can find those who’ll love it.)