https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/6f1v96/why_del_rey_and_i_will_be_parting_ways/Snip:
So what's the problem?
We are in a catch-22 because both of us see the audio rights as extremely valuable and refuse to let them go. To give you a little background, I always try to limit the rights transferred in the primary contract. This is why I only do "World English" or "North American English" and attempt to reserve my audio rights.
When The Riyria Revelations contract was negotiated I asked my agent to retain the audio rights, she said it was a "deal breaker" for them so I caved. Same thing happened with The Riyria Chronicles. Orbit ended up selling that right to Recorded Books (a transaction that at it's most took them 10 - 15 hour to do) and the result is that I've had to split more than $145,000 with them 50/50. Not only that, but Recorded Books recently renewed the contract for those books for $400,000 and you guessed it. I only get $200,000 of that money. That kind of "hit" hurts...greatly.
Snip:
She wanted to make sure Del Rey realized that the audio books were sold, so they knew what they could have and what they couldn't -- basically the same as the last contract. As you might have guessed, the response came back that the CEO at Penguin Random House has made a corporate wide decree that states, that editors with their imprints (including Del Rey) are "absolutely, and with no exceptions, forbidden to strike deals anymore that do not include audio rights."
Now, do I really think there are "absolutely no exceptions"? No. If Rowling or Stephen King wanted to keep their audio rights, I'm sure they would be able to. Likewise, if an author is selling very little in audio, I'm sure they wouldn't care if they were kept. But I seem to be in that spot where I'm not "big enough" to waive audio and my audio sales are too large for them to ignore.
And, so that, as they say is that.