SELECT INFO LINK

For the last few weeks I was unable to get my Select enrollment dates from the KDP Dashboard. I noticed the "info" link in the Select column for each book points right back to the Dashboard page. I'd open the page in a new tab (Firefox) and get exactly what I expected: another copy of the same page—but no Select info.

Same thing on the "title – setup" page: The "enrollment details" link was set to open another copy of the same "title – setup" page.

It wasn't just a question of finding out when the Select period ended for a given book (so promotions could be planned). You can always go into Promotion Manager and see the end date there. But it might be important to be able to get your hands on the automatic roll-over box and remove the check—for those interested in ending the Select program altogether for a particular book.

In fact, I went ahead and set up some promotions without the official Select Info window available. Even so, I was concerned something wasn't quite right, so I got KDP support into the act, asking what was up. I thought maybe the some of the links on this new version of the Dashboard weren't ready for prime time.

Wrong. Turns out it was MY fault all along.

See, I have a very slow rural phone line connection to the Internet. As a result, I'm reluctant to give up a page already downloaded onto my browser until I'm absolutely sure I'm through with it. So when I click a link on any given page, I'm in the habit of right-clicking and selecting "open link in new tab."

But in this case, that won't give you what you want.

You need to left-click the "info" link on the dashboard. It causes a kind of pop-up over the entire original page—a semi-transparent black window containing a smaller white box that is already in the process of loading the information you want.

Same thing on the "title – setup" page (which you can get by clicking the title of your book on the Dashboard or by clicking "Edit Book Details" at the right side of your book's listing).

The difference there, you have to wait until the page completely loads before a left-click on "enrollment details" will work. (For my slow connection, that can take many minutes—the page is loading my book's cover image and so forth.) At any time, however, you CAN right-click and open it in a new tab—the "title – setup" page, not the Select Information window.

Bottom line: Whatever page you use to get Select info for your book, it's ONLY available as the left-click pop-up. You can't open it in a separate tab. Very likely this is not a change peculiar to the new Dashboard. I must simply not have noticed before.

In other words: Never mind.