[Lanna]

Hi,

I have hundreds of books to import into my ECwid store and am wondering if there is a way to have the Ecwid software importing the Author's name along with other information.

Author name (and other details for books) can be imported as:
a) a part of product description: Ecwid product description field supports HTML editor, so you can format the text and make Author line standing out/noticeable
b) an attribute: http://kb.ecwid.com/w/page/59879584/...d%20attributes

Also I would like to know if the path in the images column can lead to a file on my pc or do I have to upload it to an online image service?

The images path has to be a direct link to the image on a server, so that Ecwid could connect there and download the image. Please, refer to this article for details:
http://kb.ecwid.com/w/page/61320633/...ledtoimportWhy