[Base] Show records associated with related ID

Sorry if the questions not too clear, having trouble figuring out how to succinctly state it.
Basically, I’m making a database of books I own. I have a table for books and a table for authors. Authors has an authorID which is the key and then two fields for first and last name. I’m making a form that you add books to the books table with now but no matter how I set the Author field for the form, it returns a result of 0 for all entries. There is an authorID of 0 but even if I put a name that doesn’t match that authorID, I get a 0 result when I tab to the next line.
The only relationship I currently have set up is connecting AuthorID in the authors table to Author on the books table.

Sounds like your form is set up in reverse. Seems your database is set with an author who can author many books - one to many relation of author to books. With that, the main form should be the author and the subform for books. When you select an author, the authors books appear in the subform (provided you linked the form and subform) where you can add another book. If you don’t have the author yet, you can add one then add the book.

If this answers your question please click on the :heavy_check_mark: (upper left area of answer).

Oh, perfect, thank you!