Each week, an accomplished published author takes over the YEM Twitter account for Thursday’s Twitter Takeover. Each week, the YA author will answer questions, tell stories, and give advice on our social media. This week YA author Leila Sales will be taking over our Twitter account.
Leila Sales is a graduate of the University of Chicago and former Scav participant and judge. She has been an editor at Penguin Random House and is the author of six young adult novels, including This Song Will Save Your Life and If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say. Her first novel, Mostly Good Girls, was published in 2010. In 2018, she left her full-time job to focus on my own writing and to launch a book development agency called The Book Engineer. Her proudest Scav Hunt memory is organizing a hundred people to play Tetris on the windows of a building.
Her most recent book is If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say. A novel about public shaming in the internet age, If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say is also an exploration of the power of words, the damage of microaggressions, and the healing power of empathy. When Winter Halperin—former spelling bee champion, aspiring writer, and daughter of a parenting expert—gets caught saying the wrong thing online, her life explodes. All across the world, people knows what she’s done, and none of them will forgive her.With her friends gone, her future plans cut short, and her identity in shambles, Winter is just trying to pick up the pieces without hurting anyone else. She knows she messed up, but does that mean it’s okay for people to send her hate mail and death threats? Does she deserve to lose all that she’s lost? And is “I’m sorry” ever good enough?
To follow along with this week’s Twitter takeover, follow our Twitter account @YoungEntmag and follow the hashtag #YAAUTHORTAKEOVER.
