Exactly.

My novel Children of the Folded Valley almost got picked up by a traditional publisher, but one person insisted I rewrite the entire manuscript in third person. That's a compromise I refused to make. It needed to be first person.

The novel was self-published in 2014 and went on to become - by far - my most successful novel to date, selling over 11,000 copies. Reviews were almost entirely positive, and not one person I've spoken to who has read the book thinks it would be better in third person.

As you say, stick to your creative instincts.

Children of the Folded Valley isn't necessarily my best novel, by the way. I think I've become far better as a writer over the past ten years, and there are at least a couple of chapters I think are a bit info-dumpy (doubtless these would have been trimmed or revised by the publisher's editor had it been accepted) but I still think it's a good novel that represents where I was at that point in my writing life fairly well.