Done with Meta: Why I Left and Why You Might Want to Follow

Fed up with algorithm changes, dwindling organic reach, and constant pay-to-play demands? You're not alone. This raw, unfiltered exploration pulls back the curtain on why Meta's ecosystem has become increasingly toxic for indie authors trying to build sustainable careers.

What began as creative playgrounds have transformed into profit-driven machines where creators work harder for less visibility every day. We've become digital sharecroppers, toiling on land we don't own, hoping for a few engagement crumbs thrown our way. But there's another path forward. When I finally said goodbye to Meta's platforms, something unexpected happened—I found freedom, genuine connection, and more effective marketing channels that I actually controlled.

This episode unpacks five powerful alternatives to Meta dependency: building your sovereign email list, creating communities on platforms like Substack and Patreon, embracing old-school discoverability through blogging and SEO, making direct connections with readers and influencers, and taking back your entrepreneurial power through direct sales. The most successful authors aren't waiting for permission from algorithms—they're creating their own paths to readers.

Your desires for your author career are divine guidance showing you the way forward. Are you ready to trust yourself, break free from platform dependency, and create success on your own terms? Listen now and start your author revolution today.

Indie publishing wasn’t built for neurodivergent minds—so let’s change that. Inside Author Revolution on Substack, I share exclusive insights on writing, publishing, and manifestation for ND authors. Plus, explore my neurospicy romcoms & urban fantasy worlds. Want to go deeper? Get access to Manifest Differently: The Deep End, my private podcast. Follow now: 👉 authorrevolution.org/substack

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Author Revolution
• 2:55 Why I'm Done with Meta
• 5:49 Alternative Marketing Strategies for Authors
• 10:55 Take Back Your Entrepreneurial Power
• 14:27 Aligning with Your Author Career Vision
• 15:58 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Carissa Andrews: 1:20

Welcome to the Author Revolution Podcast. I'm Carissa Andrews, author and your host here to help indie authors like you master mindset, harness manifestation and embrace cutting-edge innovation to elevate your career. Let's dive in.

Carissa Andrews: 1:41

Hey there, badass indie authors, Welcome back to the Author Revolution Podcast, the place where we don't wait around for permission to be successful. We just go ahead and take it right. And today we're talking about something that's been brewing in my soul for a while I am done with meta.

Carissa Andrews: 2:00

Done.

Carissa Andrews: 2:01

Over it, piecing out, flipping the bird, walking off into the sunset like a final scene of a Tarantino movie, and, honestly, you might want to consider doing the same. Now I know what you're thinking, but I need Facebook to market my books. Or Instagram is where my readers are, and hey, totally get it. I totally get it. I used to think the same thing, but then I step back and realize that meta isn't helping us. It's controlling us. So in today's episode, I'm breaking down exactly why I ditched Facebook, instagram and the whole meta machine, not to mention Twitter X, whatever you want to call it, and why you want to start plotting your escape ASAP. Let's get into it, okay, so let's get real here for a second. Meta used to be the playground for creatives, right, you could post about your books, connect with readers and actually gasp, get seen. But now it's a glorified pay-to-play casino where the house always wins. You want your followers to see your post. That'll be $50, please. Trying to grow your audience organically? Too bad. Here's a shadow ban. Oh, and don't even get me started on their fact-checking rollback and the flood of bots that conveniently amplified the worst voices on the internet. Because, yeah, that's exactly what we needed. I would hope you're the same, but, as an author myself, I value freedom of speech, creativity, diversity and the ability to actually reach my audience without having to throw money into Zuckerberg's ever deepening pockets. But Meta, they don't value that. They value control, they value profits, they value keeping us on their platform long enough to drain our wallets. And I don't know about you, but I refuse to be their pawn. Now you might be thinking, okay, but is leaving meta really the answer? Aren't all social platforms kind of the same? And the truth is, yeah, kind of. I mean Twitter, oh, excuse me, x is a dumpster fire that smells like billionaire ego. Tiktok is constantly on the chopping block. As of this moment, I think we're three weeks away from the potential chopping block again. Instagram is still meta, just with prettier filters. And don't even get me started on the frustration of constantly feeding the algorithm beast only to get five likes and a spam comment from read my crypto books for success.

Carissa Andrews: 4:22

Oh, at some point we have to ask ourselves are we indie authors or are we just digital sharecroppers working on land we don't own, hoping our overlords throw us a few crumbs? I don't know about you, but I didn't go indie just to beg an algorithm to let me exist. Know about you, but I didn't go indie just to beg an algorithm to let me exist. Okay, that's a lot, right, that's a lot, but it's how I've been feeling about this platform, how I've been feeling about these social platforms in general and the direction that they're headed, and I refuse to play by their rules. The rebellious streak in me oh, she is on fire and she is ready to just throw it all out. Oh, she is on fire and she is ready to just throw it all out.

Carissa Andrews: 5:01

But the problem here is okay. So if we're not going to spend our days dancing for Zuck's attention, what's the alternative? How do we actually get our books into readers' hands without relying on algorithm gods? Well, I'm glad you asked, because this is something that I've been working on behind the scenes for the past oh, about four months, because I know that there has to be a better way. There has to be something that we can do other than just be a part of the ecosystem that's been in place for the past 10 plus years. Right?

Carissa Andrews: 5:32

So let's talk about owning your own marketing. Like the badass entrepreneur, you are Number one. We know this already, we've been told this already, but it still rings true. Your email list is your kingdom. Okay, if you're not building an email list, stop what you're doing and fix it as soon as possible. Get on Miller Lite, get on MailChimp, get on whatever kind of email service provider you can, and start building that list, because social media followers can disappear overnight Hell, the platform itself could disappear overnight, like TikTok, right, but your email list, that's yours forever. Well, at least as long as you have your list intact and you're paying your bill, but you get what I'm saying right and you're paying your bill, but you get what I'm saying right. Number two community is king or queen or monarch, of choice, whatever, but I love, love, love building community for my readership, whether that be readership or whether it be author revolution or manifest differently, it doesn't matter.

Carissa Andrews: 6:36

Patreon, substack, Discord, facebook groups ironically, the only part of meta that still kind of works, but I wouldn't go there if you're not on Facebook at all. I'm not using Facebook, though every once in a while I will hop in right now just to make sure I'm still staying on board of understanding when, like the next, zoe bub is going to be, for instance, right, but my favorite places right now are Patreon and Substack. I love them. Substack, in essence, has become my hub when it comes to social media because I've been trying to you know as a digital nomad for the most part when it comes to social for the past few months. What I've realized in playing around is that Substack has been super huge in my own growth for what I want to do and who I want to be. Super huge in my own growth for what I want to do and who I want to be. I'm able to create content in a way that just really feels natural and powerful to the person that I am. So I can split off all the content that I create so Manifest Differently.

Carissa Andrews: 7:36

Author Revolution, neuro Spicy, rom-coms, neuro Spicy or Ne neurodivergent fantasy, whatever it is, or all my big thoughts that don't fit anywhere else. I have different containers on my sub stack and it's been so much fun having discussions with people about it and sharing what I know in a way that is so different than anywhere else. It's just been fabulous. And of course, I still have Patreon, where I'm dropping my chapter by chapters and all the things, and I have my direct link to my readers, which is a little bit different than Substack for me right now, because Substack are kind of the people who love everything I do and if you haven't checked me out on Substack, I really encourage you to go over there. You can find me. I am Carissa Andrews, the Neurodivergent Manifestor. That is my sub stack, so head over there and check it out. But, at any rate, sub stack has been a favorite Discord super cool and fun.

Carissa Andrews: 8:28

There's so much discussion happening on Discord, but I want you to build a space, or be a part of a space, where your real readers hang out and engage with you, not just a feed of ads. Okay, because, think about it, you enjoy communicating. That's the whole reason. We're authors. We have something in our heads and we're trying to share it. And when we don't get the response back from the readers, via like reviews, for instance, we have nothing. Where, if you have that community, you are in this supportive element and you are sharing who you be. All those insights, all that juiciness no-transcript, okay.

Carissa Andrews: 9:09

Number three is go old school baby Blog. You can blog Podcast like this one. Youtube SEO is still a thing and it's way more stable than social media trends Way more stable. Plus, with the use of like ChatGPT, you can find SEO a lot easier to accomplish, to understand, to wrap your head around. So much more fun than having to deal with all that stuff Now.

Carissa Andrews: 9:33

As a podcaster, I love being able to express myself through my voice as well as my written word. There's something powerful in it, and so if you want your readers, your audience, to hear, you try a podcast, see what happens, write some articles or create long form content to give you some lasting discoverability. Because when you add and create these types of things to like your website, for instance, now all of a sudden you have all this good SEO, juju bringing people back to your website, so so good. And then, of course, direct outreach. This is number four. It's more powerful than you think. Have you ever actually tried emailing book bloggers or influencers instead of hoping that they stumble across your tweet Like, have you ever talked to them? Have you ever just checked in to see what is their process?

Carissa Andrews: 10:23

How do you take on new books or get in front of people who already love books like yours, without the middleman? You can do this through, you know, going to the bookstores and doing book signings. You can do bigger book signings. You could go to craft fairs and sell your books there, I'll tell you. Craft fairs, for whatever reason, so good for getting in front of people who are going to love your books.

Carissa Andrews: 10:48

The goal here is that I want you to be thinking about ways to go bigger. And number five this is just like a sub category, the sub thing that I want you to be thinking about. Ways to go bigger and number five this is just like a sub category, the sub thing that I want you to be thinking about. It has nothing to do with meta, although it might a little bit. I want you to be thinking about, like, when you're creating your ecosystem as an author, are you doing it from a place of empowerment or are you just giving everything over to Amazon? Are you hoping that all of these bookstores are going to help you be seen and hoping and praying that someone's going to stumble upon your stuff? Or are you taking your business, your you know entrepreneurship in your own hands and creating your own store?

Carissa Andrews: 11:25

Now, I've talked about direct sales in the past, but it has been the single best decision of my life to take everything away from, like my mindset for sure, away from sending everybody to Amazon, for instance. I am now sending everyone to my store, to my work, to the things that I feel important about right, and so be thinking like is there a way to take back your power? It doesn't mean you don't sell your books on Amazon if that still is in your value wheelhouse, but stop sending everybody to other people's platforms. Bring them to your own. If you're going to put money into ads, send them to your site. Capture their emails. Do the work to become the entrepreneur that you're always meant to be.

Carissa Andrews: 12:13

Okay, the point here is that you don't need meta. Meta needs you. Okay, meta needs you, and so it doesn't matter how you're trying to grow or how you're trying to expand. You can do it without meta. You can do it in so many different ways without that. So here's my challenge for you I want you to ask yourself that. So here's my challenge for you. I want you to ask yourself is being on meta serving you or are you serving them? If you're crushing it on Instagram, awesome, but if you feel like you're constantly yelling into the void, maybe it's time to rethink your strategy.

Carissa Andrews: 12:46

Okay, because let me tell you, authors have built entire empires, empires without social media, and we can do it again. And listen, I'm not saying quit overnight if you don't want to, I get it. Change is scary. I'm not overly scared by change, but what I am saying is that I want you to start making some moves now so that, when meta inevitably screws authors over again, you're already in control of your audience. This is kind of why I went direct sales as well.

Carissa Andrews: 13:16

Like Amazon keeps screwing around with authors, you know what? I'm not going to wait around for them to tank everything. I'm going to do my own. This is the author revolution. Okay, we don't wait for permission. We create our own success. We create it.

Carissa Andrews: 13:30

That's what manifestation has always been about. That's what my talks about mindset and making sure you're aligning with who you actually are. Why it's so important. Whether you believe in manifestation or not, this is still in play. We need to decide for ourselves. What do our author careers get to look like for us? And we have to align with it in order to not put so much resistance between us and getting the thing that we want. So many authors are blocking themselves and their success because they're not actually in alignment with what they want. They're just following along, trusting that everybody who's like started this thing before them knows better than they do. No, trust yourself. Trust yourself and what it is you want. Your desires for your author career are divine guidance, telling you where you need to head. Okay, they're bread crumbs. What do you want your author career to look like? Is it involving meta or is it to say goodbye to them? Okay, for me it was goodbye. It was the second he came out and he did his whole like fact-checking. Rollback bots are a new thing. I was done. So what about you? Are you in or are you out? As always?

Carissa Andrews: 14:43

Thank you for listening to the Author Revolution podcast. If you love this episode, or if it made you pause, made you think about it, I want you to share it with a fellow indie or leave a review. Okay, just engage with it in some way, shape or about it. I want you to share it with a fellow indie or leave a review. Okay, just engage with it in some way, shape or form, because that's going to help others find this particular episode as well. Now remember, you are in charge of your destiny. You create the way your author career gets to work for you. You do not have to follow the footsteps of those who came before you. Follow your own path, trust your own inner wisdom and go forth and start your author revolution. Thank you.