Italian novelist taking in hard copy (4)
I believe the answer is:
echo
'copy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'italian novelist taking in hard' is the wordplay.
'italian novelist' becomes 'eco' (I've seen this in other clues).
'taking in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'eco' placed around 'h' is 'ECHO'.
(Other definitions for echo that I've seen before include "letter we hear" , "Response" , "Comms code word for E" , "Parrot" , "Rebounding sound" .)