Julia, I am always confused when an Independent disses agencies.
Isn‘t every agency lady free to work as an independent?
Merb even allows independents to be identified by their former agency identity ( or identities).
Given the abundance of agency ladies, a high percentage of them must view the transaction as simply an efficient outsourcing of tasks and beneficial pooling of economic resources.
The agency handles advertising, booking, transportation, some level of security, providing of information to customers, and often a shared incall place. Each lady provides a cut of her earnings as payment for those services.
To some ladies, that must be a good deal, since there are so many ladies who work for agencies. To others, they prefer to work and do all those functions by themselves.
Most customers see both agency and independent ladies. I have never met an agency lady who expressed feeling enslaved. I have met plenty of independents whose initial ”Book of Business” came entirely from the guys she met while working at an agency, and I have never heard of an escort having to pay for those contacts - which is a damn good deal compared to many forms of business. I remember having a funny conversation with an agency owner/booker once a long time ago. This agency worked with ladies who toured. I had used the agency a few times and I saw that one of their ladies who had gone independent was touring a city that I was scheduled to visit. I asked the agency lady I should just use my history with them as a reference for the independent. The agency lady said that she hoped I would find the drawer in the Independent‘s hotel room where she hid the cash and send it to the agency, since the lady who had gone independent did not send the agency its share for her last tour with the agency.