A potboiler is an artistic work (usually written) created for the sole purpose of making money quickly or to maintain a steady income for the artist, thus implying that artistic values were subordinate to saleability.

The word was derived from "to boil the pot": in other words, the author wrote the book to keep a pot of food boiling.

One of the most famous potboilers is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

On September 22, 1959, television host Mike Wallace used the term while interviewing writer Rod Serling about his upcoming show, "The Twilight Zone" during Wallace's show, "The Mike Wallace Interview " (1957)