Are you up to your neck in editorial tasks and on the edge of burn-out?

The Editorial Leadership Institute is your solution.

Are you ready to radically transform your editorial life? If so, the Editorial Leadership Institute is for you. This is a hands-on, get-it-done, 30-day institute where the outcome is

  1. a new you (editor, colleague, leader),

  2. a new journal (plan, process, workflow), and

  3. a new balance to life.

I want to help you make your life as an editor easier!

I’m most interested in helping people.
And, I love to help people help other people, which is why I have worked for decades to help train and mentor journal editors and staff in editorial workflows, documentation processes, and other practices that seem pesky but necessary.

I’m not interested in helping you figure out how your journal can earn more money, how you can keep doing things the same way they have always been done, or convincing you of my expertise because you don’t like my funny website photos. Life is too short to not have fun!

  • Editors

    Need a complete strategic plan, including full documentation of processes, service and sunsetting options, and leadership transition mentoring? Want to incorporate multimedia into your digital journal or book series? Ready to migrate your journal online and stuck on next steps? Need to streamline your editorial workflows across multiple users? Ready to integrate DEI principles into your publishing?

  • Publishers

    Need to integrate a better workflow for your journals program? Have book series that require a little more editorial support? Want to create some training for journal and book series editors? Stuck on creating digital workflows suitable for your press? Need training in editing enhanced eBook content? Want to work with your faculty editors to update best practices? Ready to integrate DEI principles into your publishing?

Let's Chat to See if ELI is Right for You!

  • What happens at the ELI?

    The Editorial Leadership Institute includes

    • 45-minute, bi-weekly Zoom meetings with instructor and cohort

    • Training documents, mini-classes, and ad-hoc lessons by the instructor(s).

    • Homework is completed on participants’ own time.

    • Time to discuss the lessons and homework is embedded in the virtual f2f sessions.

    • Instructor and cohort-based feedback happens through online discussion forums.

    • Weekly accountability check-ins occur in the forums.

    • One 60-minute 1:1 session with the instructor takes place midway through the course.

  • What You Leave With...

    Participants leave the institute with a collection of editorially based reference training materials and revised drafts of key documentation appropriate to your publication’s needs.

    These documents might include

    • business & strategic plans

    • job descriptions & onboarding sessions

    • editorial process flowcharts

    • communication and technology strategies

    • migration to new platform or OA plans

    • other documents, as needed

    ELI helps you manage your publications, work better with your teams, and/or transform your journal workflows and practices.

With over two decades of editorial leadership training experience, I have developed a deep passion for working with editors and publishers who have pain points in their editorial processes and who have a strong desire to infuse innovation—or just plain change—into their everyday editing lives. Since 2000, I have guided hundreds of editors and editorial teams through challenging shifts in ideas that allow them to better and more quickly focus on what needs to be accomplished versus the prep work they feel has to happen before they can get to the work of editing.

What does it mean to be an editor? That’s the question behind every editorial leadership lesson I teach.

I am Cheryl E. Ball

I am motivated to make the Editorial Leadership Institute as accessible as possible for diverse audiences, so if you need specific arrangements, please get in touch.

Let’s chat to see if the ELI is right for you!

Your Instructor

In my 25+ years of academic experience, I’ve worked with hundreds of editors, presses, universities, organizations, funding agencies, publication venues, and platforms.

"Cheryl has the rarest combination of traits: She's a big-picture visionary thinker, and she's an on-the-ground manager of a thousand details. Working with her helped me understand how to match my biggest ideas with a more streamlined, democratic, and useful editorial practice. Cheryl showed me how to revise and simplify the journal's workflow so I could concentrate on the ideas that motivate my editorial and scholarly practice. And one final thing: She's an inexhaustible font of good ideas, intellectual clarity, and practical wisdom. Work with her!"

— Stephanie Foote, Founding Editor of Resilience

white female cartoon character wearing pink bunny ears and raising her hands above her head

Dates, Cost & Registration

The Editorial Leadership Institute runs July 17–August 18, 2023, via Zoom. Cost is $2,500, including materials. Registration for Summer 2023 cohort is now closed. Stay tuned for the Fall 2023 cohort opening in late September!

This is my old cat, Beau aka grumpy cat. If this is the face you bring to your editorial work, I will help you turn that glower into a smile.

middle aged white woman with short blonde hair and glasses, smiling, wearing a white wool sweater and holding a grumpy orange chonk of a cat.