| 100% | PUBDATE | 7 | Something awaited by an author, casually |
| 47% | ETE | 3 | Period awaited by an étudiant |
| 46% | NAME | 4 | Pen ___ (alias used by an author) |
| 46% | PSEUDONYM | 9 | Fictitious name used by an author |
| 46% | ANONYMOUS | 9 | By an unknown author |
| 45% | PSEUDONYM | 9 | A false name used by an author |
| 45% | DEADAIM | 7 | Something taken by an archer |
| 45% | ART | 3 | Something admired by an aesthete |
| 45% | LESSON | 6 | Something given by an instructor |
| 45% | ALBUM | 5 | Something dropped by an artist |
| 45% | ANON | 4 | By an unknown author: Abbr. |
| 45% | ANON | 4 | By an unidentified author: Abbr. |
| 45% | TOUR | 4 | Book ___ (series of promotional appearances by an author) |
| 45% | ESSAY | 5 | Something graded by an English professor |
| 45% | ORDER | 5 | Something placed by an online shopper |
| 45% | TORCH | 5 | Something carried by an unrequited lover |
| 45% | MOLD | 4 | Something broken by an innovator, idiomatically |
| 44% | FANFIC | 6 | Spinoff stories written by an author's readers, informally |
| 44% | SPORE | 5 | Something emitted by an exploding puffball mushroom |
| 43% | BIB | 3 | Something worn by an infant or marathon runner |
| 41% | PHOBIA | 6 | Disorder caused by an irrational fear of something |
| 41% | HEARSE | 6 | Something drawn by an invisible horse outside Disney's Haunted Mansion |
| 39% | MISERY | 6 | Horror novel about an author who is kidnapped by a fan |
| 38% | FINAGLE | 7 | Get something by trickery, an anagram of leafing |
| 38% | MISNAME | 7 | Call something by an incorrect term |
| 35% | PSEUDONYM | 9 | False name, something an author writes under |
| 34% | LONGFELLOW | 10 | Author of an 1841 poem that contains the line spelled out by the circled squares |
| 34% | AKIRA | 5 | “Something Like an Autobiography” author Kurosawa |
| 33% | RYAN | 4 | "On Location with Barbie: An Adventure with Barbie and Her Friends," book by author ___ Wellock |
| 32% | VIDEO | 5 | With 8-Across, something played by an e-sports competitor |