The authors guild does not represent all authors everywhere. They took it upon themselves to make a deal with google for all writers, whether they were their members or not. A lot of writers organisations, agents and publishers have advised their writers to opt out of this ridiculous settlement. Amazon is not altruistic in this but if this deal is allowed to go through authors are going to get an even rawer deal than they currently are getting. The authors guild barely represents 8000 members. This is going to affect millions of authors worldwide.
This is the SFWA (Science Fiction Writer's of America) statement on google
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/sfwa-sta...ok-settlement/
National Writers Union opposes google settlement
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/...ok-settlement/