This is a really tired old subject that's been discussed to death, so I'm not sure how much response you'll get to your thread. I'll add a few things...
The book you mention is $9.99 in both paperback and ebook, the difference being Amazon is discounting the paper book 15% and due to the pricing model (different than paper) used for most eBooks aren't allowed to discount the price (the publisher sets the ebook price and any sale prices).
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But no longer do you need a publisher who invests in paper, ink, glue, and machinery for printing and binding physical books. With a digital eBook you don't need a distributor, who has warehouses and trucks, the personnel with forklifts and shipping logistics to move the mass volumes of books. And you can also limit (in a large part) the cost to retailers, since they don't have the overhead to lease a building, cover insurance, pay employees to move inventory and checkout customers.
An eBook just needs a server to host it. Sure, there may be associated costs with hosting a server, or costs to license DRM encryption? But why is the cost of an eBook so high? In the case of the Dan Brown example above, the eBook on Amazon costs more than a physical paperback @ $9.99. Not to mention, you had to spend some amount of money on an eReader to read that book on it.
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Keep in mind that the printing costs (paper, ink, binding, etc) are a small part of the overall cost of a paper book. In many cases eBooks still have distributors that get them into some of the eBook stores that aren't Amazon, B&N, etc. and there are customer support costs involved with ebooks that paper books don't have. Mulitple DRM servers run in the many thousands of dollars per year (just software licensing & support, hardware & bandwidth are extra) along with the per book DRM fees which at last check were around $.22 per book for anyone using Adobe's DRM. Beyond that what it costs to produce the book (or album, etc.) has very little to do with what the book sells for. Never has.
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eBooks, in my mind, should be like that. You spent $100 or whatever on some piece of hardware to read them. There's no physical copy, just ones and zeros that exist in the ether. Make the eBook version $2 or $3.
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Other than for the occasional sale $2-$3 only works in the self-publishing world and even then it's not enough for the author to make a living in general and other than introductory offers even that market has largely moved beyond such pricing. You'll find that many find the ebook to be much more valuable to them than a paper copy.
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The music industry evolved too. You used to go into a record store and judiciously pick which new album you would spend your $17 on, now with Apple iTunes, or whatever you use, you can pick those few hits off an album for a buck a piece.
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Yes, you can buy individual tracks. There are eBooks similar to this where you can buy a part at a time, but you kind of need the whole book (album) for it to really "work" so...
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The same is true with movies. Buying a VHS or DVD or BD is more than buying the digital version in whatever content provider you use when you choose to buy the digital streaming version.
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There are plenty of examples where the digital movie will cost you much more than a physical blu-ray (which often also includes a digital copy). Again, the price has little to do with the format and cost of producing it.