Bleeding Cool, a blog for comic book fans, broke the news on March 7 of Amazon’s deeply discounted comics and graphic novels. News spread and fans started scooping up things like expensive box sets for around $15. For a while, most of the books in Amazon’s Top 100 were comic books.

It turned out to be a “glitch” that caused the drop in prices. Publishers Weekly reports that thousands — maybe tens of thousands — of orders were made with those low prices, but it’s still unclear how many of the orders will be honored. Some customers report that they have received their order, while others say their order was cancelled.

PW estimates the damage from the glitch could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars for either Amazon or Diamond Comics Distributors. Publishers who deal through Diamond include Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, IDW, Avatar, and Dynamite.

Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool also reports that there are currently difficulties on Amazon ordering books represented by Diamond.

The Story Prize for 2009 was awarded to a collection entitled In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.

About Mueenuddin’s book, the judges said:

“These stories are written with a deep sense of knowing; as though Mueenuddin’s skin is a particular kind of porous; there is an ache, an inescapable constant melancholy, our masterful guide, knows too much, feels too deeply — if such a thing is possible.”

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was also a finalist for the 2009 National Book Awards. It was included in many “top” lists of the year, including TIME magazine’s top 10 books of the year, Publishers Weekly’s top 10 books of 2009, The Economist’s top 10 fiction books of 2009, The Guardian’s best books of the year, The New Statesman’s best books of the year, and The New York Times‘ 100 best books of the year.

The Story Prize, which started in 2004, is awarded annually to the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction. The other two finalists for 2009 include Victoria Patterson’s Drift and Wells Tower’s Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned. Mueenuddin received $20,000 and other two finalists received $5,000.

Henry Holt and Co. has decided to stop printing a new book from its catalog, The Last Train from Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino, after questions arose about its accuracy. The book examines the bombing of Hiroshima through the eyes of its survivors. It had received good reviews and James Cameron was even in line to direct the movie adaptation.

Shortly after its publication, however, The New York Times reported that one of Pellegrino’s sources, Joseph Fuoco, was possibly a phony:

[...] Mr. Fuoco, who died in 2008 at age 84 and lived in Westbury, N.Y., never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an impostor.

Originally, Holt had planned to just correct future printings of the book, with changes to no more than five pages of text and one illustration. Then more doubts arose about the book’s veracity when Holt was unable to verify the existence of two subjects in the book, Father Mattias and John MacQuitty.

A statement released from the publisher reads:

”The author of any work of nonfiction must stand behind its content. We must rely on our authors to answer questions that may arise as to the accuracy of their work and reliability of their sources. Unfortunately, Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction.”

Holt had already shipped 18,000 copies of The Last Train to Hiroshima, but will offer a credit to wholesalers, retailers, and consumers on returns of the book.

This summer, Nintendo will begin offering e-books for its handheld devices, the Nintendo DS and DSi gaming systems. The 100 Classic Book Collection will be released in June for about $20 and include works by Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Jules Verne, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, and more. Readers will also be able to download new content via wi-fi connections.

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Scribd, the document sharing site with over 10 million documents, has launched a “Send-to-Device” feature that will enable users to more easily send content, including books and chapters for sale, to their e-readers and smartphones. The feature also allows users to send their own documents to the devices, such as MS Word files, PowerPoint presentations, and PDF files.

The fairness hearing for the Google Books Settlement between Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers took place Thursday. After an hours-long hearing, Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court in New York declined to rule just yet, saying, “There is just too much to digest.”

A total of 21 objectors and 5 supporters were heard in the courtroom. Attorney William Cavanaugh was among the objectors who argued on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice for the settlement to be rejected. Cavanaugh’s main argument was against the part of the settlement that deals with future publishing rights. Judge Chin also questioned this portion of the deal:

“Usually it’s a release of claims based on what’s happened in the past. Usually you don’t have a release of claims based on future conduct. Why is this case different?” Chin asked Michael J. Boni, [attorney for the Authors Guild].

Publishers Weekly reports, “Some court watchers said a decision could take months, given the sheer amount of paper filed with the court.”