As one who just went through this.... (Score 1)

I recently published a Speculative Fiction book in March. And when things started to go a little bit south with my publisher, I realized that I had made some critical errors when I signed the contract which I did.

1. They had all my rights. Print, audio, electronic, foreign, etc.
2. They weren't doing anything with the rights except for print. And I was stuck... I couldn't do anything with electronic or audio rights myself.

What I learned:

1. Keep all the rights you can when you sell a manuscript to a publisher.
2. If the publisher wants a particular right, make them justify it. Put "performance metrics" in the contract so that they have to perform with the right given, or it reverts back to the author. And, don't make it open ended. Put a time limit on those rights.

Why?

Authors are realizing that audio and electronic rights are very, very valuable. But so are publishers. They are fighting to keep control of those rights. Audio can be expensive to produce at first, but electronic is nearly without cost. Once the typesetting and formatting is done for the print run, converting the book to e-reader formats is easy. It took me less than a day to convert mine. Every sale after that is pure profit. This is why publishers are scrambling to retain control. In many cases, their business models are not supported by the traditional methods very well, and they need this extra income to stay afloat.

I predict that authors and agents will continue to become more savvy in these areas, and therefore, the contracts they demand of the big publishers will continue to be better written, year after year. Authors will then find themselves protected by contracts which are fair, well written, and sane. This can only help promote technology... and audio will eventually become accepted on all e-readers. That is what I think will happen. Especially if it helps to sell books, no matter what format the book comes in.