Literature, Fantasy | – It was a Friday night, she stopped while everyone else was on their way home to eat tacos

Now she has sold the rights to Bangladesh.

– It’s pretty cool, she says over a cup of coffee at Blackbird.

The sun shines in through the window on Klosterøya and Birgitte smiles.

Norwegian folklore to the East

She has every reason to be happy. The glitter flick and the fantasy universe Oria has received international attention and she has sold more than she had hoped for.

– An average debut author often sells less than 200 copies. So far I have sold between 1,500 and 2,000 copies, she says, who will soon be ready with book number two.

It is the fantasy universe Oria that deals with Norwegian folk tales and Norwegian folklore and builds on this. The universe will reach out to the East.

– It was a Friday evening that I was going to sign books at the center in Bø. I had really geared up and was super ready. Unfortunately, I saw that not many people had time to stop, everyone was going home for Taco Friday, she says and smiles.

– But then suddenly she and her husband and a son who were in the middle of the target group for the book came over to me. She received a brief summary of what this was all about, and she became very interested and thought this could be interesting for readers in Bangladesh, says Wærstad.

– Have bought the rights

The woman who took an interest is a freelance writer.

– Both she and her husband were writers and had an acquaintance who ran both bookshops and had a publishing house in Bangladesh. We have had some contact now, and they have actually bought the rights to publish the book in Bengali. It will probably happen before too long, because they would like to have the book at the world’s largest book fair in Dhaka, says Wærstad, who has also been invited over to participate in the fair.

– Now that I’m selling the rights, it means that they have the opportunity to publish the book on paper, as an audiobook and as an e-book, while I get royalties. I have read up a bit on Bengali culture now and have understood that fantasy is big in Bangladesh, she says.

– I have faith

There has been a lot of feedback.

– It’s incredibly nice, says she, who has started all this on her own.

Book number two is ready this summer, in parallel with the first book being translated into Bengali.

– I do this because I believe in what I do. Last year, not one book was published by a publisher for children between the ages of 12 and 15 in Norway, and I would like to do something about that. We must awaken the desire to read in children and young people, far too much time is spent on screens. It is actually a democratic problem that young people now read too little, says Wærstad, who hopes to make a living as an author.

– I hope so. So far, what I have earned has gone to reinvestment, eventually I hope to make money from this, she says in conclusion.

Her books are currently available in more than 100 libraries and more than 100 booksellers across the country.