A plea from me and no doubt other writers

[edwest2]

Printers are requiring electronic files in the US. We used to do keylines but they stopped making the board on which they were pasted on.

As far as price, the publisher has the final say but the factors are finite.

1) What is the average price for a similar book?
2) What is the anticipated press run? At the company where I work, guesswork is replaced by a pre-order system which shows trends that influence the final decision regarding how many copies to print.
3) Production costs. After the total of what everyone involved gets paid is defined, then this is factored into the cover price.

Contracts. It should all be in the contract, or work agreement, for writers as far as payment, royalties and rights. Since I am not an attorney, I can only encourage everyone to have a contract reviewed by one before signing.