Potboiler

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For a type of boiler, see pot boiler.

A potboiler is an artistic work (writing, picture, musical composition, play, film, but usually something written), created only to make money quickly or to maintain a steady income for the artist, thus implying that artistic values were subordinate to saleability. The word implies that its author had to write the book/etc to earn enough money to buy fire fuel to heat his cooking pot.

One of the most famous potboilers is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens [1], showing that works written primarily for money are not always of subpar quality. Television host Mike Wallace used the term while interviewing writer Rod Serling about his upcoming show, The Twilight Zone [2]. At that time, science fiction writing was considered amateurish and juvenile, and Wallace questioned whether or not Serling was moving away from "serious" writing. However, Wallace's concerns were eventually disproved with Serling's series becoming an influential television classic