Less substantial artist with true representation of books etc (10)
I believe the answer is:
literature
'books etc' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'less substantial artist with true representation' is the wordplay.
'less substantial' becomes 'lite' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'representation' is an anagram indicator.
'true' anagrammed gives 'ture'.
'lite'+'ra'+'ture'='LITERATURE'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for literature that I've seen before include "promotional material" , "What author writes" , "Reading matter" , "Work by Spenser for instance" , "Creative writing" .)