An author's works list (Open Library) API

List an Open Library author's works (by author key) with first-publish date, cover image URL, subjects, and a derived cover-coverage ratio across the returned set. Answers 'what books has author OL... written', 'bibliography with cover availability'. Use data-author-profile first to get the authorId.

Price$0.01per request

MethodPOST

Route/v1/data/author-works

StatusLive

MIME typeapplication/json

Rate limit60/minute

Cache604800s public

databooksauthoropenlibrarybibliographyworkscoversliterature

API URLhttps://x402.hexl.dev/v1/data/author-works

Integration docs

Example request

{
  "authorId": "OL26320A",
  "limit": 3
}

Example response

{
  "authorId": "OL26320A",
  "totalWorks": 415,
  "returned": 3,
  "coverCoverage": 0.33,
  "works": [
    {
      "workId": "OL33131791W",
      "title": "Il signore degli anelli",
      "firstPublished": null,
      "coverUrl": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/13119612-M.jpg",
      "hasCover": true,
      "subjects": [],
      "url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL33131791W"
    },
    {
      "workId": "OL44552594W",
      "title": "Hobbit Graphic Novel",
      "firstPublished": null,
      "coverUrl": null,
      "hasCover": false,
      "subjects": [],
      "url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL44552594W"
    },
    {
      "workId": "OL44608156W",
      "title": "Caída de Númenor / the Fall of Númenor",
      "firstPublished": null,
      "coverUrl": null,
      "hasCover": false,
      "subjects": [],
      "url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL44608156W"
    }
  ]
}

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "authorId"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "authorId": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^OL\\d+A$",
      "description": "Open Library author key, e.g. 'OL26320A'."
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 30,
      "default": 10
    }
  }
}

Output schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": true
}