Free e Books--good thing or bad?

Ed here: I try to keep up on the ever evolving e-books story but I bring so little understanding to it I'm afraid to offer an opinion. So let me pose my misgivings here as a question. If Kindle keeps offering free books, and if Kindle customers keep insisting that $9.99 is too high a price for an e book, how will book publishers ever make serious money on line?

From Galleycat:

4 of the 100 Top Kindle Store Bestsellers Are Free
By Jason Boog on Dec 28, 2009 09:23 AM

By GalleyCat's count yesterda...