Crossword Genius

Author in online catalogue after end of autumn (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

novelist

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'author' is the definition.
(I know that novelist is a type of author)

'online catalogue after end of autumn' is the wordplay.
'online' becomes 'e' (as in e-mail or e-commerce).
'catalogue' becomes 'list' (a catalogue is a list of items).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'end of autumn' becomes 'nov' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'e'+'list'='elist'
'elist' put after 'nov' is 'NOVELIST'.

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for novelist that I've seen before include "James was one" , "Source of books" , "Mailer possibly" , "I've written" , "Writer of long stories" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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