I've created a table with a primary key and enabled AUTO_INCREMENT, how do I get MYSQL use AUTO_INCREMENT?

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS test.authors ( hostcheck_id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT, instance_id INT, host_object_id INT, check_type INT, is_raw_check INT, current_check_attempt INT, max_check_attempts INT, state INT, state_type INT, start_time datetime, start_time_usec INT, end_time datetime, end_time_usec INT, command_object_id INT, command_args VARCHAR(25), command_line VARCHAR(100), timeout int, early_timeout INT, execution_time DEC(18,5), latency DEC(18,3), return_code INT, output VARCHAR(50), long_output VARCHAR(50), perfdata VARCHAR(50) );

Here is the query I used, I've tried "" and "1" for the first value but it doesn't work.

INSERT INTO test.authors VALUES ('1','1','67','0','0','1','10','0','1', '2012-01-03 12:50:49','108929','2012-01-03 12:50:59','198963','21','', '/usr/local/nagios/libexec/check_ping 5','30','0','4.04159','0.102','1', 'PING WARNING -DUPLICATES FOUND! Packet loss = 0%, RTA = 2.86 ms','', 'rta=2.860000m=0%;80;100;0');