What is Kindle Select and how can it help sell my e-book?

Amazon Kindle Select is a relatively new program launched to help independent authors and to help Amazon's sales.  It also is a way for Amazon to dominate the e-book industry by requiring independent authors to digitally publish their books exclusively on Amazon Kindle Select.  Authors cannot have the book published on any other platform while enrolled in Amazon.com's Kindle Select program.  The other hitch is that your book will be available for free during the promotional period of time, and lastly, your book will be available for checked out in the Amazon Kindle Owners' Lending Library.  The Kindle Owners' Lending Library can only be accessed by Amazon Prime members. 
The best benefit for independent authors in this program is the 5-day free promotion period every 90 days.  During your free promotion days, Amazon will promote your book on their site and offer it for free for the days you select.  You can either use all 5 days consecutively or you can schedule them sporadically throughout the 90-day period.  Cheryl Kaye Tardif who wrote  How I Made Over $42,000 in 1 Month Selling My Kindle eBooks broke up her five days into two promotion times:  a three day promotion and then a two day promotion later on.  It worked for her.  Her book tells how she laid out a marketing and promotion plan for her book using Kindle Select.  The book explains how her sales increased over a short time as a result of the program.  It was impressive.
So if you're interested in enrolling your book to Kindle Select, you'll first have to remove it from other platforms like Smashwords, Apple QuickReads, and Barnes & Noble, etc.  But it could be the best move you make in getting your e-book ranked higher in the lists and increasing your sales.

Who gets published on Kindle Singles?

Curious as to whether or not my little book stood a chance of being accepted by Kindle Singles, I did a little digging around on the Amazon Kindle Singles site.  Since it's launch in January of 2011, Kindle Singles has published 3 new titles each week.  Their editor received around 50 unsolicited submissions each week, so Dave Blum's job leaves knee deep in manuscripts every day.  Most of the lucky ones who are chosen to live on this list of Kindle Singles are exclusive to Amazon, meaning this is mostly original material.  Others accepted come from traditional publishers and also e-singles publishers The Atavist and Byliner.  More about those sites later.
Most authors covet the Kindle Singles list over the Barnes & Noble Nook Snaps and Apple QuickReads because they receive more marketing and promotion help from Amazon.  Also, you've got to admit most people use Amazon not only for book shopping but for looking up info on a book in mind.  It's like a library helper site as well as a book seller.
So in a nutshell the answer to the question "Who gets published on Kindle Singles?" is the lucky ones.  Also, I've got to admit the talented ones.  So I guess even if you do have a flashy book cover, it's still not going to fly with Kindle Singles because they are looking for quality; not just bling.