diff --git a/src/calibre/library/catalogs/csv_xml.py b/src/calibre/library/catalogs/csv_xml.py
index 174558685b..0cc8b4d298 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/catalogs/csv_xml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/catalogs/csv_xml.py
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ class CSV_XML(CatalogPlugin):
         from calibre.utils.html2text import html2text
         from calibre.utils.logging import default_log as log
         from lxml import etree
+        from calibre.ebooks.metadata import authors_to_string
 
         self.fmt = path_to_output.rpartition('.')[2]
         self.notification = notification
@@ -133,7 +134,9 @@ class CSV_XML(CatalogPlugin):
                         for format in item:
                             fmt_list.append(format.rpartition('.')[2].lower())
                         item = ', '.join(fmt_list)
-                    elif field in ['authors', 'tags']:
+                    elif field == 'authors':
+                        item = authors_to_string(item)
+                    elif field == 'tags':
                         item = ', '.join(item)
                     elif field == 'isbn':
                         # Could be 9, 10 or 13 digits, with hyphens, possibly ending in 'X'