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Goodreads API 1 credit/request

Goodreads Author Detail API Documentation

GET https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983

Retrieve a public Goodreads author profile by legacy author id: name, birth and death dates when public, birth place when listed, the bio in HTML and plain text, and the works list with title, url, author, average rating, ratings count, published year, cover image, editions count and a 1-based position per work. The current author page markup carries no follower count, so none is returned. A valid author with an empty works list is a successful response.

Goodreads Author Detail API Documentation 1 credit/request

Endpoint

Request preview
GET
https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983
Auth header
x-api-key
Cost
1 credit/request
id = 656983
Response preview
200 OK
{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 656983,
        "name": "J.R.R. Tolkien",
        "url": "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/656983.J_R_R_Tolkien",
        "born": "1892-01-03",
        "died": "1973-09-02",
        "birth_place": "Bloemfontein, Mangaung, Free State, South Africa",
        "works": [
            {
                "position": 1,
                "id": "5907",
                "title": "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again",
...

Parameters

Start with the required fields, then add optional filters only when your use case needs them.

Runnable path

1 required parameter needed before sending a request.

id integer Required

Goodreads legacy author id (the number in the author url). Example: 656983.

Example value 656983

Request Examples

PHP
<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => "https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983",
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}
PHP
<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

$response = Http::timeout(30)
    ->withHeaders(['x-api-key' => 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'])
    ->get('https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983');

if ($response->successful()) {
    echo $response->body();
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $response->status();
}
JavaScript
const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
    }
};

fetch('https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983', options)
    .then(response => {
        if (!response.ok) {
            throw new Error(`HTTP error! status: ${response.status}`);
        }
        return response.text();
    })
    .then(data => console.log(data))
    .catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
JavaScript
const axios = require('axios');

const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983',
    headers: {
        x-api-key: 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
    }
};

try {
    const response = await axios(options);
    console.log(response.data);
} catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error.message);
}
Ruby
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'

uri = URI.parse("https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983")
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
request['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'

begin
    response = http.request(request)
    puts response.body
rescue => e
    puts "Error: #{e.message}"
end
Python
import http.client
import json

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("scrappa.co")

headers = {
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}

try:
    conn.request("GET", "/api/goodreads/author?id=656983", headers=headers)
    res = conn.getresponse()
    data = res.read()
    print(data.decode("utf-8"))
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
finally:
    conn.close()
Python
import requests

headers = {
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}

try:
    response = requests.get('https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983', headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()
    print(response.text)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
Java
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.Response;
import java.io.IOException;

public class ApiExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();

        Request request = new Request.Builder()
            .url("https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983")
        .addHeader("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
            .build();

        try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
            if (response.isSuccessful()) {
                System.out.println(response.body().string());
            } else {
                System.out.println("Error: " + response.code());
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}
Go
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "io/ioutil"
)

func main() {
    client := &http.Client{}
    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983", nil)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error creating request:", err)
        return
    }
    req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")

    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error making request:", err)
        return
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error reading response:", err)
        return
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}
Terminal
#!/bin/bash

curl -X GET \
    -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" \
    "https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983"
C#
using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
    static async Task Main()
    {
        using var client = new HttpClient();
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE");

        try
        {
            var response = await client.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983"));
            var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(content);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}
TypeScript
import axios from 'axios';

async function run(): Promise<void> {
    try {
        const response = await axios({
            method: 'GET',
            url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983',
            headers: {
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
            },
        });

        console.log(response.data);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error:', error);
    }
}

void run();
RUST
use reqwest::Client;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let client = Client::new();

    let response = client
        .get("https://scrappa.co/api/goodreads/author?id=656983")
        .header("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
        .send()
        .await?;

    println!("{}", response.text().await?);

    Ok(())
}

Response Schema

Example response fields are illustrative; inspect the JSON before integrating.

Example response fields

Scan these fields before integrating.

success data meta
JSON Response
200 OK
{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 656983,
        "name": "J.R.R. Tolkien",
        "url": "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/656983.J_R_R_Tolkien",
        "born": "1892-01-03",
        "died": "1973-09-02",
        "birth_place": "Bloemfontein, Mangaung, Free State, South Africa",
        "works": [
            {
                "position": 1,
                "id": "5907",
                "title": "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again",
                "url": "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5907.The_Hobbit_or_There_and_Back_Again",
                "author": "J.R.R. Tolkien",
                "average_rating": 4.3,
                "ratings_count": 4650420,
                "published_year": 1937,
                "cover_url": "https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1274575248i/5907._SY75_.jpg",
                "editions_count": 1455
            }
        ]
    },
    "meta": {
        "endpoint_family": "author_detail",
        "billable": true
    }
}

Errors

Handle these documented responses before retrying or showing customer-facing failures.

422

Validation Error

The id parameter is missing or not an integer. This response is not billable.

{
    "errors": {
        "id": [
            "The id field is required."
        ]
    },
    "message": "The request validation failed"
}
404

Author Not Found

The requested Goodreads author was not found. This response is not billable.

{
    "meta": {
        "billable": false,
        "retryable": false,
        "endpoint_family": "author_detail"
    },
    "error": {
        "code": "NOT_FOUND",
        "message": "The requested Goodreads resource was not found."
    },
    "success": false
}
503

Upstream Unavailable

Goodreads is temporarily unreachable. Retry later; this response is not billable.

{
    "meta": {
        "billable": false,
        "retryable": true,
        "endpoint_family": "author_detail"
    },
    "error": {
        "code": "UPSTREAM_UNAVAILABLE",
        "message": "The Goodreads API is temporarily unavailable. Please retry."
    },
    "success": false
}

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