What author wants — connections to the top people? (9)
I believe the answer is:
royalties
'what author wants' is the definition.
'connections to the top people?' is the wordplay.
'connections' becomes 'ties' (tie is a kind of connection).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'the top people?' becomes 'royal' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ties' put after 'royal' is 'ROYALTIES'.
(Other definitions for royalties that I've seen before include "Payments to composers" , "Writer's payments" , "Appropriate payments" .)