Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House)
Genre: YA romantic thriller
Formats: $12.99 paperback | $8.99 ebook | $25 audiobook
Released: May 28, 2024
Sloan Harlow was interested in writing from a very young age, and Everything We Never Said is her debut novel. With her black cat, Pabu, she lives in Georgia, where she’s trying to eat as much ube ice cream as possible.
In Everything We Never Said, what you don’t know can hurt you. It’s been months since the accident that killed Ella’s best friend, Hayley, and Ella can’t stop blaming herself. Now Ella is back at school, and everywhere she looks are reminders of her best friend—including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. Little by little, they grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying … she’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend. Racked with guilt, Ella turns to Hayley’s journal, hoping she’ll find something in the pages that will make her feel better about what’s happening. Instead, she discovers that Sawyer has secrets of his own and that his relationship with Hayley wasn’t as picture perfect as it seemed.
When asked what contributed to the book landing on the New York Times bestseller list, Harlow said: “I am overwhelmed with gratitude and endlessly proud of the work everyone has put into [this book]. Having an incredible team backing me was the primary contributor.” Harlow credited the cover design for not just offering a compelling visual but aligning to market trends. She also credited her editor’s instinct for the market, which helped Harlow to align the novel’s writing style to what was selling.
“It’s not romantic and even a little disillusioning at first. We all love the story about the lone author with this story inside them, one that will change the world, and they go and hole up in a cabin, and voilà, bestseller, but the truth is that a book is made by a huge team of people. It’s not enough to write a book, you have to sell it, and this isn’t a meritocracy.” Harlow took her editor’s advice with the mindset that, “Hey, you’re the expert, you know the market, you’ve been selling books longer than I’ve been writing them.”
Informed by this experience, Harlow emphasized that just because an author’s book isn’t a bestseller doesn’t mean it isn’t excellent or changing a reader’s life, or that the author won’t be a bestseller in future. “When I read, and my life is better for what I’ve read, it doesn’t matter what lists this author or book are on,” she said. “Personally? Caring about bestseller status yanks me from that perspective. So ask yourself: What definition of success are you chasing?”
Emily Wenstrom is a freelance writer and platforming expert and writes award-winning speculative fiction for teens and adults as E. J. Wenstrom.
E. J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. She writes dark speculative fiction for adults and teens, including her new release, a young adult dystopian novel titled Departures (August 10, 2021). When she isn’t writing fiction, E. J. Wenstrom is a regular contributor to DIY MFA and BookRiot, and co-hosts the Fantasy+Girl Podcast. Learn more at her website.
