dime novelist

plural dime novelists

1. One who writes dime novels.

   Smoke had always answered her questions honestly because he wanted her to know the truth, not what came from the fevered imaginations of whiskey-addled dime novelists, as he put it.

   2017, William W[allace] Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone, chapter 8, in The Jensen Brand, New York, N.Y.: Pinnacle Books, Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN, pages 61–62

   2 more examples

   Innumerable anecdotes are related of his prowess, and the stories of his hairbreath^([sic]) escapes and dangerous adventures while hunting and trapping—stories which have formed the warp and woof of the exaggerations of the dime novelists—would fill a volume even larger than this.

   1873, John Frost, “William Cody.—‘Buffalo Bill.’—His Life and Adventures.”, in Frost’s Pictorial History of Indian Wars and Captivities, from the Earliest Record of American History to the Present Time. […], part first, New York, N.Y.: Wells Publishing Company, […], pages 333–334

   She’d heard stories of western gunfighters, heroic figures who might gun down three men before they fired a single shot. She assumed these to be the fevered imaginings of dime novelists.

   2016, Derek Catron, chapter 7, in Trail Angel: A Frontier Epic of Love & Redemption, Waterville, Me.: Five Star, Gale, →ISBN, page 38