I'm Writing a New Book
and gathering a new audience — and you can help
So, I’m writing a new book.
It’s a book for twenty-somethings who aren’t finding their place in the world of work.
It’s a book for young people whose call to adventure and desire for self-ownership outweigh their need for security and acceptance.
It’s a book that questions why one must work full-time, must bury romantic impulses, or must choose a single place to call home.
I’m writing it because it’s a book I wish existed. And because… it’s me.
In my early twenties, I was failing as an employee. I could get myself hired, but I couldn’t commit. I always found a reason to quit and run away. My mind overflowed with romantic visions of wilderness immersion, perpetual travel, and social activism. Whenever I saw a peer taking a stressful job to pay for a house or apartment to fill with furniture and appliances, I felt sick. I wanted freedom, purpose, and adventure. I craved more experiences and fewer things. I wanted to be in love with the story of my own life. The normal path would not suffice.
So I took a different path: one filled with nature, travel, risk, romance, and very part-time self-employment. I earned little and spent less. I invested heavily in friendship, movement, contemplation, and creative expression. Each year, I asked myself if I could keep doing this. Surely, my luck must run out.
Fifteen years later, and here I am. I made it to my 40s without taking a single bullshit job, going bankrupt, or burning out. Most importantly, I’ve seen, done, and lived enough to die happily tomorrow. This feels like a victory worth celebrating and sharing.
This is my story of becoming “dirtbag rich,” and it’s just one among many. That’s why I’m not writing a memoir but rather a guidebook, filled with the principles I’ve discovered along my journey, accompanied by the stories and struggles of other “dirtbag rich” hailing from different backgrounds.
If you’re a long-time reader of The Adventures of Blake, you may have suspected that this book was coming. I didn’t realize it until earlier this summer, when I suddenly felt “pregnant” with a little book baby. It’s still in the first trimester, but the little champ feels healthy. What an adventure, bringing new life into the world! 🐣📚
The game plan
This will be book number 5½ for me, and I’m doing things a bit differently.1
Scroll up and look at that cover art again. Isn’t it beautiful? I paid $600 for it. Usually this is the last step in publishing, but I did it first. Why? Accountability. Now, if I don’t finish this book, I’m out $600. You’re welcome, future Blake.
Actually, I’m out $850. Because I also dropped $250 to edit the book’s introduction, which you can read right now. GO READ THE INTRODUCTION—it’s great! It also explains why I embrace the somewhat off-putting term dirtbag.
Will I seek a traditional publisher? Will I self-publish? I’ve already received positive interest from a literary agent. But I do adore the speed, control, and financials of self-publishing. So let’s see.
Most importantly, who will even read this thing? I imagine my primary audience to be twenty-somethings who aren’t fitting into the employment system and wanting to fill their lives with more nature, travel, purpose, freedom, and adventure. This differs from my long-time “platform” of parents who care about alternatives to school. So in addition to writing the actual thing, I need to find new ways to connect with potential readers. Otherwise my baby won’t have many playmates.
Here’s how I plan to do this:
Reach out to all the teenagers I’ve worked with, who are now young adults. Anyone who knows me personally is the most likely to read, care, and share.
Start podcasting again. Yes, everyone and their dog has a podcast these days. But podcasting is the best way to interview fascinating people leading “dirtbag rich” lives, gather stories for the book, and build trust with new listeners. I loved running my alternative education podcast for seven years (with 275,000+ total listens) and look forward to jumping back in.
Update: the podcast is live!
Share my ideas on TikTok. I am hereby joining modernity and creating short videos, because TikTok is where the older teens and twenty-somethings are hanging out. I’ve already started, and I’m actually enjoying myself. God help us all.
Offer more Unschool Adventures for 18- to 23-year-olds, like the Gap Year Launchpad I just announced for June 2025.
Run online meetups for young adults.Finally, I’ll begin running free online meetups for young adults who feel lost, confused, and incapable of fitting into “the system.” I’m calling this groupWayward Youth, and through it, I hope to learn directly from those I envision serving.[scratched]
This is my current game plan. Surely I’m missing something important. That’s where you come in!
How to help
If you want to see Dirtbag Rich come to life, here’s how you can help:
Join my superhero team: the best way to follow the book’s journey and shape its development 🦸🏽♀️
Read the introduction and share your thoughts/reactions.
Tell me who my audience is. Who else might want to read this? Tell me!
Connect me to one amazing person who I might interview for the podcast/book. Especially if they read the introduction and say “Whoa, that sounds like me!”
Watch me embarrass myself on TikTok by following @dirtbagrich.
Subscribe to the podcast. It won’t launch until November-ish. But if you go subscribe to my other podcast, Off-Trail Learning (via any platform), one day it will magically transform into Dirtbag Rich. Et voilà!
Keep reading and sharing The Adventures of Blake. Naturally.
Writing a book is an intimidating, long-term project. I don’t know where this journey will take me or when it will end. I do know it will be better with you at my side.
Thanks for being part of the adventure.
❤️✍🏼
—Blake
(Reach me by commenting, hitting “reply,” or emailing yourstruly@blakeboles.com.)
Book number 4½ was my 2023 illustrated zine, Do What You Love and Die Trying, which served as a trial balloon for Dirtbag Rich. The PDF edition is now free to download.
I actually think your audience isn't just 20-somethings. There are plenty of 30-somethings and even early 40-somethings who probably have spent most of their lives with an itch to live a more non-traditional life. Their problem has been that they're just afraid of the consequences of walking away from the lives they've built thus far.
Will you also talk about how to handle moments when life isn't always perfect and the uncertainty around living this way can shake your confidence sometimes? If so, this book probably will also serve as a good reminder to those already living non-traditional lives that those feelings are normal and provide some ideas for how to handle that tension whenever it arises.
I recommend you connect with Paul Millerd, author of the Pathless Path and a new book called Good Work. I think there's some overlap there.
Hi Blake! I heard about your project through a mutual friend, Brendan Leonard, and I might be a good fit for an interview! I left a conventional 9-5 with benefits to spend all of 2020 living in my (not sexy) minivan and traveling to every US national park to learn more about the history of our country's public lands and the things most threatening them in the modern world. I've somehow parlayed that to a freelance career as an outdoor journalist and travel writer? Sure. It's an amazing, strange, flexible, purpose-driven job that I wish someone had told me in my 20s was a real thing. In any case, would love to chat! brazenbackpacker@gmail.com