Press a novel in short supply (6)
I believe the answer is:
sparse
'in short supply' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'press a novel' is the wordplay.
'novel' is an anagram indicator.
'press'+'a'='pressa'
'pressa' anagrammed gives 'SPARSE'.
(Other definitions for sparse that I've seen before include "Thinly populated" , "Thinly spread" , "Thin on the ground, scarce" , "Thinly scattered, not dense" , "Meagre, thin on the ground" .)