
The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term dime novel has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, referring to story papers, five- and ten-cent weeklies, "thick book" reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines.
Wildly popular in their day, dime novels were eventually replaced by pulp magazines.
"Penny Dreadfuls" and "shilling shockers" are similar genres but produced in Britain.