RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 van den Braber, Helleke A1 Geerdink, Nina A1 Ham, Laurens A1 Oosterman, Johan A1 Bax, SanderYR 2020 T1 Echte schrijvers zijn niet te koop JF Nederlandse Letterkunde, VO 25 IS 1 SP 27 OP 61 DO https://doi.org/10.5117/NEDLET2020.1.003.VAND PB Amsterdam University Press, SN 2352-118X, AB Abstract A grand narrative of Dutch literary authors’ opportunities to economically profit from their writing is yet to be written. The general assumption, however, is that these opportunities developed teleologically from a dominant system of patronage during medieval and early modern times, in which financial gains were marginal and in which author’s independence of their supporters was constrained, to a system in which the commercial book market was dominant and where authors could be more self-supporting and thus more independent of supporters. This article argues that there is no such teleology. On the contrary: on the basis of an exploration of both practice and discourse of literary authors’ profits from the Middle Ages to the present, we conclude that in every period, it was possible for authors to profit from their writing through either patronage, market or governmental support, and often through a combination of these sources. Moreover, in every period varying types of independence of literary authors was valued highly. Our analysis of the discourse on profits shows that the continuous tendency to disguise financial advancement could be related to the importance of authorial independence throughout the ages., UL https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/NEDLET2020.1.003.VAND