Works great.

ragi

Here's a simple plugin that disables "Create" for authors:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Disable Create for Authors
Description:
Version: 1.00
Requires at least: 2.60
*/

// register callbacks
addAction('section_init', 'disableCreateForAuthors', null, 2);

// disable Add/Create if user is an author
function disableCreateForAuthors($tableName, $action) {

  if ($GLOBALS['hasAuthorAccess'] && !$GLOBALS['hasEditorAccess']) { 
    $GLOBALS['schema']['_disableAdd'] = 1; 
  }

}

//eof

Let me know if that works for you!

1.  Allow only Authors to edit specific fields in a record; and

2.  No one can create a new record except for Editors.

I can do 1. easily enough by restricting access to the specific field(s) only to Authors, but my issue is 2.  Not sure how to go about it.

Ragi

What about just limiting Authors to a maximum number of records for each section?

They will then get an error message when they try to create an additional record if they have reached their maximum.

Any ideas?