A potboiler is a book, film or play that someone made quickly and cheaply, mainly for the money, and that nobody would call art. The typical potboiler is exciting or romantic — a thriller, a cheap romance, a spy story with a shocking cover — because those sell. The word carries a judgement, so who says it matters. Critics use it to look down on a work: 'his last novel was a potboiler'. But writers also use it about their own work, and then it is almost an apology with a shrug — this one paid the rent so I could write the real book. Because of that second use, the word is not purely cruel. It admits that writers have to eat. It is a slightly old-fashioned, bookish word. You meet it in reviews, in literary talk, in a biography of a novelist. A young person on the internet would more likely say 'trash', 'a cash grab' or 'beach read'. That last one, 'beach read', is interesting: it says the same thing about the book but has no sneer in it at all — light, fun, easy to put down. It is countable: a potboiler, two potboilers. It can also be used as a description: 'a potboiler plot'.

為了賺錢趕出來的通俗作品、圈錢之作（帶貶意；也可以是作者自嘲「養家的活兒」）