👋 The Privilege of Leaving Social Media — Being a Working Writer & Valuing Art with River Selby

👋 The Privilege of Leaving Social Media — Being a Working Writer & Valuing Art with River Selby

From Off The Grid: Leaving Social Media by Softer Sounds

May 20, 2026 · 59 min · Season 9 · Episode 165

About this episode

River Selby discusses the challenges of being a working writer and the impact of social media on their artistic values and financial well-being.

“My constant longing to be without social media is actually a longing to be in deeper connection with the world.” River Selby was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. They worked as a wildland firefighter for seven years, and their debut memoir, Hotshot: A Life of Fire , was published in 2025 by Grove Atlantic. Today, River joins me to talk about the realities of being an author from a working class, no-safety-net background — and how that has shaped their relationship to social media. Together, we explore: The gifts (and perils) of refusing to niche down How to quit performing & projecting on social media What to do when compare & despair becomes unavoidable How financial insecurity might impact your social media options Why many authors have to hire publicists (but we couldn’t afford to) Ways social media impacts your financial well-being Why we have to stop commodifying books RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails 📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com ! ✨ Ready to finally figure out relationship marketing…

People in this episode

Host: Amelia

Guest: River Selby

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Grove Atlantic

Books & works: Hotshot: A Life of Fire

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