Get an author’s profile
An author’s profile: name, photo, birth date and place, death date, website, genres, influences, biography, average rating, rating and review counts across their books, number of works, followers, and their most popular books. 1 credit.
/author-profile Authors https://api.fetchlayer.dev/goodreads/author-profile Headers
Authorization string required Bearer token — your FetchLayer API key.
Parameters
author integer | string required The author: a Goodreads author id (656983) or an author URL (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/656983).
format string optional json or markdown, lowercase; any other value is a 400. Over MCP, markdown returns the result rendered as text; the REST API accepts it and returns JSON. (default: json)
timeoutMs number optional Per-request time limit in milliseconds (max 600000).
Response Fields
author-profile
Get an author’s profile
transport string The data source: always the platform id, "goodreads".
notes string[] Caveats about this response you can act on, such as a series listing fewer works than its total. Empty when there are none.
id number The author id. An author that does not exist is a 404.
name string The author’s name.
url string Link to the author on goodreads.com.
imageUrl string | null Photo.
isGoodreadsAuthor boolean Whether the author manages their own Goodreads profile.
bornAt string | null Birth date (YYYY-MM-DD); birthPlace is alongside, diedAt is the death date. Authors who manage their own profile often publish none of these.
website string | null The author’s website.
genres object[] { name, url } for each genre the author writes in.
influences object[] { id, name, url } for each influence that has a Goodreads author page; influencesText is the full list as written.
bio string | null The biography as plain text; bioHtml keeps its formatting.
rating object { average, count, reviewCount } across all the author’s books.
worksCount number | null How many distinct works they have; author-books lists them.
followers number | null Followers on Goodreads.
topBooks object[] Their most popular books, in the book-summary shape, with editionsCount.
Request
curl -X POST "https://api.fetchlayer.dev/goodreads/author-profile" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ss-your-key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"author":656983}'Response
{
"transport": "goodreads",
"notes": [],
"id": 656983,
"name": "J.R.R. Tolkien",
"url": "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/656983",
"imageUrl": "https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1648968349p8/656983.jpg",
"isGoodreadsAuthor": false,
"bornAt": "1892-01-03",
"birthPlace": "Bloemfontein, Mangaung, Free State, South Africa",
"diedAt": "1973-09-02",
"website": "https://www.tolkienestate.com/",
"genres": [
{
"name": "Fantasy",
"url": "https://www.goodreads.com/genres/fantasy"
}
],
"influences": [
{
"id": 158904,
"name": "Thomas Aquinas",
"url": "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/158904.Thomas_Aquinas"
}
],
"influencesText": "Traditional Catholicism, Scholasticism, Thomas Aquinas, Norse Mythology, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Finnish Mythology, George MacDonald, William Morris, E.R. Eddison, Francis Thompson",
"bio": "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a…",
"bioHtml": "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he…",
"rating": {
"average": 4.38,
"count": 12973273,
"reviewCount": 292808
},
"worksCount": 822,
"followers": 80335,
"topBooks": [
{
"id": 5907,
"workId": 1540236,
"title": "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again",
"url": "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5907.The_Hobbit_or_There_and_Back_Again",
"coverUrl": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546071216i/5907._SY75_.jpg",
"authors": [
{
"id": 656983,
"name": "J.R.R. Tolkien",
"url": "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/656983"
}
],
"rating": {
"average": 4.3,
"count": 4663337,
"reviewCount": null
},
"firstPublishedYear": 1937,
"editionsCount": 1452
}
]
}