Initially, Flo Selfman’s career in public relations began at a boutique agency in Beverly Hills. She represented celebrities, events, and arranged West Coast book tours for Simon & Schuster authors. However, the PR gene had already been planted some years earlier when her parents bought a restaurant in Santa Monica when Flo told her father, “Dad, what you need to do is change the name, get a new sign, change the menus, take out ads in all the papers, send out flyers—and do it all at once!” He didn’t, but she was hooked. And has been creating and implementing PR campaigns ever since.
Flo Selfman’s Career in Campaign Management
In addition to representing celebrities, Flo has created and executed campaigns for arts events, theatre productions. She has managed businesses, books and authors, including local, regional, and national media tours. She uses the specialty method. This technique targets media approaches by being specifically geared to each author’s topic, personality, interests, and budget. Her press kits and campaigns have received awards, including the IRWIN Award from Book Publicists of Southern California for “Best News Tie-In Campaign.”
How Flo Selfman Merges Copy Editing and Public Relations
Flo is also a sought-after copy editor. She proofreads/copy edits scripts and manuscripts in many genres for a variety of individual and corporate clients. Recent books include an 110,000-word novel, memoirs, a gay-sci-fi-mystery love story (her third time editing a book for this author). A YA novel about the effects of immigration on the Hispanic community, a cookbook, a business relationship book, workbook, and website. Because of her PR background, she has gained an eye toward publishing and promotion strategies, and is able to further advise her editing clients.
Born and raised in Ohio, Flo earned a BA degree in Psychology from UCLA. She also holds a California Secondary Teaching Credential, and the Instructor Development Certificate from UCLA Extension. She teaches lively on-site grammar and punctuation review workshops for adults. Flo was president (pro bono) of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC.org) from 2003-2016. A record unlikely to be broken!
Outside of the office, Flo’s interests include Classical and Latin music. She also enjoys architecture and historic preservation, reading, travel, and photography.
