What's Authors Guild Really Up To?

Authors Guild has finagled several indie book distributors into sending emails to their customers/vendors. They are asking indies to tell them how much they make.

So far, I've received emails from Alliance of Independent Authors, Barnes & Noble, and D2D/Smashwords. I fairly sure Amazon, Apple, and GooglePlay will refuse or have refused to participate. I'm waiting to see if I get anything from Kobo or IngramSparks. I've asked around, and several writers I personally know have received these emails. So far, none of these people are planning to respond to the survey.

Why does Authors Guild want this information? Because they've been trying to make the case that author incomes are down across the board. As far as I know, they been doing this survey amongst their membership for the last five years.

But here's the problem. There's been an active anti-indie vibe within AG for the last fifteen years. In fact, AG didn't make a big announcement regarding finally accepting indie members in 2014. They quietly slipped the change into their membership rules.

And frankly, I have a problem with the criteria AG and most other professional writer organizations have for accepting indie writers. I could get $500 advance for a novel from one of the Big Five, and the offer letter is sufficient for membership to AG. It doesn't matter whether I make another penny on that book. However, as an indie, I have to prove I made ten times that amount in one year on one book to become a member. Sorry, but that's just not right.

Furthermore, I don't feel comfortable showing statements from my distributors or my bank account statements to random strangers. Most other writers I know don't either. Frankly, that level of detail is no one's fucking business other than my husband's and our CPA's. Well, and the IRS.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I fear how this information will be used. I understand that we indies are very individualistic. I also understand we don't have a centralized repository for information. However, we were the ones that the Big Five didn't want, so why is AG so interested in our information?

I can only think that AG and their buddies, the Big Five and agents, are looking to copy our techniques even more than they already are.