The standard model of authorship in the 'long eighteenth century' is a narrative of transformation and modernization. Culturally conservative writers such as Pope continued to regard such authors as debasers of literature, but by the second quarter of the century the authors themselves began to declare openly that they wrote for money: they 'professed' themselves to be authors-for-pay. 'Literary marketplace', like 'professional author', is under-defined and undertheorized. It is now used loosely for three or four different transactions: the author sells a copyright to a bookseller; the booksellers sell shares in copyright to each other; the bookseller hires a writer and pays him so much per page; the bookseller, acting as retailer, sells printed books to the reader. Historians of the book trade show that very few authors would have had any bargaining power in selling copyrights. Authors who could consider themselves gentlemen shared the prejudice against writing for 'necessity' or 'livelihood'.