Name: Search Books API 📚: Instantly Find Books by Genre & Theme 🧙♂️
Brand: skycraft
SKU: api-skycraft-search-books
Availability: InStock
Author: API Market

Pulkit

# Search Books API 📚

### Overview

Search among a vast collection of over 4 million books using various filters like query text, ISBN, author IDs, rating, or publication year. You can even leverage the ontology-based semantic parsing to find books by high-level concepts (e.g., “paranormal” includes Aliens, Werewolves, etc.).


💼 **Provider**: API League 

---

## Features
✅ **Semantic Query :** 
 Use natural or thematic terms (e.g., “paranormal”) to get related genres (aliens, ghosts, etc.). 
✅ **Flexible Filtering :** 
 Filter by author(s), ISBN, rating, publish years, categories, and more. 
✅ **Sorting & Pagination :** 
Order results by publish date or rating, skip items with offset, and limit with number. 
✅ **Grouping :** 
Optionally group different editions of the same title as a single result. 


---

## Use Cases
🔹**Online Retail or Libraries** 
Provide a robust search interface to help readers discover new titles. 
🔹**Recommendation Engines** 
Combine text-based filters (e.g., “fantasy” or “nonfiction”) with rating constraints. 
🔹**Academic Research** 
Narrow down by publication years or categories for specialized references. 


---

## API Reference

#### 1. Search Books

🔹**Query Parameters**:
| Parameter | Type | Example | Description |
|-------------------------|------------------|--------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **query** | string | books about wizards | The search query. |
| **earliest-publish-year**| integer($int32) | 2022 | The books must have been published after this year. |
| **latest-publish-year** | integer($int32) | 2023 | The books must have been published before this year. |
| **min-rating** | number($double) | 0.8 | The minimum rating the book must have gotten in the interval [0,1]. |
| **max-rating** | number($double) | 0.99 | The maximum rating the book must have gotten in the interval [0,1]. |
| **genres** | string | nonfiction | A comma-separated list of genres. Only books from any of the given genres will be returned. |
| **authors** | string | J.K. Rowling | A comma-separated list of author ids or names. Only books from any of the given authors will be returned. |
| **isbn** | string | 9781781257654 | Only the book matching the ISBN-13 will be returned. |
| **oclc** | string | 864418200 | Only the book matching the OCLC will be returned. |
| **sort** | string | rating | The sorting criteria (publish-date or rating). |
| **sort-direction** | string | DESC | Whether to sort ascending or descending (ASC or DESC). |
| **group-results** | boolean | false | Whether to group similar editions of the same book. |
| **offset** | integer($int32) | 0 | The number of books to skip in range [0,1000]. |
| **number** | integer($int32) | 10 | The number of books to return in range [1,100]. |
| **x-api-market-key** | string | sdfvswfwrg12334 | API.market API Key. |


🔹**Example Request**:

 ```
curl -X 'GET' \
 'https://prod.api.market/api/v1/apileague/search-books/search-books?query=books%20about%20wizards&earliest-publish-year=2022&latest-publish-year=2023&min-rating=0.8&max-rating=0.99&genres=nonfiction&authors=J.K.%20Rowling&isbn=9781781257654&oclc=864418200&sort=rating&sort-direction=DESC&group-results=false&offset=0&number=10' \
 -H 'accept: application/json' \
 -H 'x-api-market-key: <your_api_key>'
```

🔹**Response**:
 ```
{
 "total_results": 5999,
 "number": 10,
 "offset": 0,
 "books": [
 [
 {
 "title": "Journey to Hogwarts",
 "image": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/2520429-M.jpg",
 "id": 17200576
 }
 ],
 [
 {
 "image": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/2520430-M.jpg",
 "id": 15954006,
 "title": "Inside Hogwarts",
 "subtitle": "Magical Paintbook"
 }
 ],
 ...
 ]
}

```
---

## Best Practices 
✅ **Use At Least One Filter :** Ensure to provide at least one filter such as a search query, rating, or publish year range for more relevant results. 
✅ **Parameter Validation :** Confirm that numeric fields (e.g., earliest-publish-year) fall within the valid ranges. 
✅ **Sort Appropriately :** Use `sort=publish-date` or `sort=rating` alongside `sort-direction=ASC|DESC` to organize results. 
✅ **Grouping Editions :** Set `group-results=true` if you prefer to combine multiple editions of the same book into one entry. 
✅ **Caching :** Cache frequently accessed queries (e.g., popular categories) to improve response times. 
✅ **Error Handling :** Handle 4xx or 5xx status codes to address invalid parameters or rate-limiting issues.


---

## SEO Keywords

🔹 
`book search `, `query-based filtering`, `semantic categories`, `ISBN-based`, `large library`, `advanced filtering`

🚀 Get Started Today! 

📩 Support Contact: [support@api.market](mailto\:support@api.market)

The Search Books API provides access to over 4 million books, allowing users to filter by query text, ISBN, author IDs, rating, publication year, and theme.