From Thursday’s Wall Street Journal front page:
E-Book Readers Face Sticker Shock
Cheap new e-readers are expected to be one of the hottest gifts this holiday season. But new owners of Kindles and Nooks may be in for sticker shock on Christmas morning: The price gap between the print and e-versions of some top sellers has now narrowed to within a few dollars—and in some cases, e-books are more expensive than their printed equivalents.
Call it e-bait-and-switch.
Campaign Outsider 
Let’s not forget the books priced between $0.00 and $0.99. The music revolution got consumer used to spending freely on purchases priced up to a dollar without batting an eyelash. The way people part with a dollar indicates that those are as good as free in many people’s eyes.
A quick search on Amazon reveals that there are roughly 10,000 books rated 4 stars or better and priced between $0 and $0.99 … 10,000 options for consumers to ignore the major publishers. The collusion the major publishers are alleged to have engaged in has only served to open the door for independent, self-published authors who are now enjoying unprecedented attention from the buying public. The major houses may just be putting themselves out of business as more services spring up to inform consumers of highly-rated affordable options by quality writers. As a result, traffic on book review blogs has increased dramatically over the past two years. The Internet has arrived … empowering people to overcome corporations.
On average, self-published books receive five reviews from friends, family, and paid reviewers. That is why many alternatives maintain higher thresholds. One alternative to finding high-quality, cheap books is Cheap eBooks (http://99cent-books.com/). It’s simply a directory of books that have received a minimum of ten reviews, rated 4 stars or higher, and cost between $0.00 and $0.99.
* 10,000 applies to Mystery and Thriller genres only.