Different approach needed for penning year books (9)
I believe the answer is:
apocrypha
'books' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'different approach needed for penning year' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'year' could be 'y' and 'y' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'approach' is 'apocrpha' which is within the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apocrypha that I've seen before include "O.T. Books not accepted by Jews, and excluded from Protestant Bible at the Reformation" , "Religious texts not in all Bibles" , "Uncanonical writings" , "Biblical writings" , "Old Testament appendix of 14 books" .)