Moscow Food Co-op Business Partner Profile

by Jill Maxwell, from the October 2005 newsletter

Do you have a story inside you? A book that you’re dying to write…if only you could get the time. Something you really want to tell people about…if only you could get the first sentence right? These are the kinds of problems Jyotsna "Jo” Sreenivasan loves to take on.

Jo is a writing coach, writer and editor and she wants to help other would-be authors get their thoughts down on paper. She named her business “Inspire Communications” because inspiring people is what she wants to do.

“I like helping people get their excitement down on paper, so other people will get it too,” she says.

Critiquing manuscripts, helping write book proposals, and giving advice about marketing are just a few of the services she offers. Jo will also co-author books and ghostwrite.

“I would love to work with someone who’s an expert in his or her subject,” she explains, “but who doesn’t know how to write about it; and who needs me to organize it.”

Jo began her business more than eight years ago because she liked the idea of working with people who wanted to write a book.

“I like working with people with big ideas,” she says. “I like working with people who are passionate about something.”

Her clients have included novelists, writers of children’s stories, and authors of literature for young adults.

She says the first thing most of her clients want to know is “how do I get published?” In her opinion, the best way to get published is to write more, to write better, to research your market, and to submit to as many places as possible. Committing to do the writing is often the biggest roadblock for many people, she says. If people want to be writers, they need to make the time to write.

Many aspiring writers also struggle with the question of how to begin. “People think, ‘I’ve got to do it right,’ and that’s what stops them,” Jo says. She counsels that them to just write without thinking, or free-write, so they can turn off the anxiety.

“Usually the answers don’t come until you get started writing,” she says. “You have to let your right brain create as you go along. When you’re writing, don’t hold anything back. Put everything you have into it. The more you write, the more ideas you’ll get.”

Even as a child, Jyotsna was drawn to writing.

“That’s what I’m passionate about,” she says. “I love to write and I love to learn. Writing is a great way to learn.”

She has published two novels for young adults, a biography, and numerous short stories. The Moon over Crete and Aruna’s Journey both feature young Indian-American heroines who deal with complex issues such as sexism and multi-culturalism. Her biography, Ela Bhatt: Uniting Women in India, tells the story of a union organizer who led the fight to establish banks and worker cooperatives for the poorest women in India.

“What I really wanted to do was inspire kids,” she says of her first two books. “Because I was really inspired by books when I was a kid.”

Writing fiction for adults has, until recently, been a kind of frontier for Jo, but it is a frontier she’s willing to explore. She has written two novels that she is working on getting published.

Call 208-892-0730, visit her Web site at www.WritingHelp.us, or e-mail jyotsna64@aol.com for more information. As a business partner, she offers Co-op members 10 percent off all Inspire Communications services.

Jill Maxwell enjoys meeting, and writing about, Co-op Business Partners.

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