With constant coverage, novel can't get contract (8)
I believe the answer is:
truncate
'contract' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'with constant coverage novel can't get' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'constant' could be 'e' (mathematics: 2.71) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'get' could be 'run' (running is a kind of getting) and 'run' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for truncate that I've seen before include "Make shorter by cutting off" , "Dock" , "Lop" , "Shorten by cutting off the top" , "Cut short" .)