Credit one novel to be profound (9)
I believe the answer is:
recondite
'profound' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'credit one novel' is the wordplay.
'novel' is an anagram indicator.
'credit'+'one'='creditone'
'creditone' with letters rearranged gives 'RECONDITE'.
'to be' is the link.
(Other definitions for recondite that I've seen before include "Abstruse" , "Direct one to be obscure or difficult" , "Mysterious" , "Enigmatic" , "Difficult to understand" .)