How are prices typically calculated and decided? Without disclosing business secrets of any particular company, we will review the economics of scholarly publishing today. What value do editors and other publishing employees add? What effects do increasing price/cost pressures have on product quality, and does it really matter? How does the larger ecosystem of a publishing company affect pricing? Are the approaches of for-profit and nonprofit companies fundamentally different? How much do publishers save by publishing in e-formats, and are the savings being passed along to customers? What is a sensible approach as a library customer to deciding whether or not prices are fair? Are self-publishing and open-access models cheaper and poised to challenge the power of corporate publishing? Publishing veterans with long experience in both commercial and university-press scholarly publishing attempt to address some issues clearly and squarely that publishers and librarians don’t talk about enough with each other.