Literal.club Book Reviews Scraper

At a glance: what it does is extract public Literal.club book metadata, ratings, authors, ISBNs, and review data; input examples include search queries, ISBNs, authors, URLs, and profile handles; output examples are book, review, author, and profile rows; use cases include catalog enrichment; limitations, troubleshooting, and pricing/cost notes are covered below.

Extract public Literal.club book metadata, ratings, authors, ISBNs, visible review text, and public profile review data for research, catalog enrichment, market monitoring, and book-review analysis.

This Actor works with public Literal.club pages only. It does not log in, does not use Literal.club APIs, and does not collect private account data.

Main Use Cases

• Build datasets of public Literal.club book metadata and reviews.
• Enrich a list of book titles, ISBNs, or Literal.club URLs.
• Monitor public review snippets for selected books.
• Collect public reviews from known Literal.club profile handles.
• Compare public ratings, review counts, authors, ISBNs, publishers, and source URLs across a book list.

What Data You Get

The Actor saves normalized dataset items with entityType set to book, review, author, or profile.

Typical fields include:

• Book data: title, subtitle, description, cover URL, ISBN-10, ISBN-13, language, page count, publisher, published date, average rating, review count, reading-state counts, authors, and Literal.club source URL.
• Review data: review text, rating, reviewer handle/name, reviewed book title, reviewed book ISBNs, created/updated dates when visible, tags when visible, and source URL.
• Author/profile data: name, handle, bio, image URL, public follower/following counts when visible, and source URL.
• Traceability: source, sourceUrl, and scrapedAt on every item.

Input Configuration

Start with one or more of these:

• searchQueries: book names or search terms. Best when you do not know the exact URL or ISBN.
• isbns: ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 values. Hyphens and spaces are cleaned automatically.
• authorNames: author names to search.
• startUrls: public Literal.club book, search, author, profile, or profile review URLs. Direct book URLs are the cheapest and most precise input.
• profileHandles: public Literal.club handles, with or without @.

Useful options:

• includeReviews: collect public review text when it is visible.
• maxReviews: cap the total number of review records.
• maxBooks: cap the number of book pages enriched.
• maxSearchResultsPerQuery: cap how many book links are followed per search.
• enableIsbnDiscovery: use extra public book metadata discovery for ISBN and author-name matching. Turn it off for direct Literal.club URLs when you want the cheapest precise run.
• outputMode: use normalized for one streamed dataset row per item. This is recommended.

Example Input

{
  "searchQueries": ["Sapiens"],
  "includeReviews": true,
  "maxReviews": 5,
  "maxBooks": 2,
  "maxSearchResultsPerQuery": 1
}

Cheapest precise input:

{
  "startUrls": ["https://literal.club/book/sapiens-bp7kc"],
  "includeReviews": false,
  "maxReviews": 0,
  "maxBooks": 1,
  "enableIsbnDiscovery": false
}

Profile reviews:

{
  "profileHandles": ["piet"],
  "includeReviews": true,
  "maxReviews": 25,
  "maxBooks": 5
}

Example Output

Book item:

{
  "entityType": "book",
  "source": "literal.club",
  "sourceBookId": "ckpptxpp01226151givfzdstoh7",
  "slug": "sapiens-bp7kc",
  "title": "Sapiens",
  "subtitle": "A Brief History of Humankind",
  "isbn10": "0062316117",
  "isbn13": "9780062316110",
  "pageCount": 464,
  "publisher": "Harper Perennial",
  "averageRating": 4.34,
  "reviewCount": 1304,
  "authors": [{ "name": "Yuval Noah Harari", "slug": "yuval-noah-harari-2guoz" }],
  "bookLevelReviewDiscoveryStatus": "available_in_public_page_and_collected",
  "sourceUrl": "https://literal.club/book/sapiens-bp7kc",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-12T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Review item:

{
  "entityType": "review",
  "source": "literal.club",
  "sourceReviewId": "REVIEW_ID",
  "rating": 4,
  "reviewText": "Public review text visible on Literal.club.",
  "reviewerHandle": "reader",
  "reviewerName": "Reader Name",
  "bookSlug": "sapiens-bp7kc",
  "bookTitle": "Sapiens",
  "sourceUrl": "https://literal.club/book/sapiens-bp7kc",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-12T00:00:00.000Z"
}

How to Run

1. Open the Actor on Apify.
2. Add book names, ISBNs, direct Literal.club URLs, author names, or profile handles in the Input tab.
3. Set includeReviews and result caps.
4. Click Start.
5. Open the Dataset tab to preview, filter, and export results.

Exporting Results

Results are available in the Apify dataset. You can download them as JSON, JSONL, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS, or consume them through the Apify API.

Python API Example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("thescrapelab/literal-club-book-reviews-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "startUrls": ["https://literal.club/book/sapiens-bp7kc"],
        "includeReviews": False,
        "maxReviews": 0,
        "maxBooks": 1,
        "enableIsbnDiscovery": False,
    }
)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Pricing Notes

Recommended pricing is pay per result. A result is one saved dataset item, such as a book, review, author, or profile. Direct Literal.club URLs and known ISBNs usually cost less than broad searches because they avoid extra discovery pages.

For the lowest-cost runs, use direct book URLs or ISBNs, keep maxBooks and maxReviews close to what you need, and turn enableIsbnDiscovery off for direct URL runs.

Limits and Caveats

• Only public data visible on Literal.club pages is collected.
• Review coverage depends on what Literal.club renders publicly for each book or profile.
• maxReviews is a cap, not a guarantee that reviews exist publicly.
• Book-name search may need public ISBN discovery to find the correct Literal.club book page.
• Direct Literal.club book URLs are more precise than broad search terms.
• The Actor does not bypass login walls, private profiles, private shelves, or anti-bot systems.

Troubleshooting

• Empty results: try a direct Literal.club book URL or a known ISBN.
• No reviews returned: enable includeReviews, raise maxReviews, or provide a public profile handle with visible reviews.
• Wrong edition: use an exact ISBN or direct Literal.club book URL.
• Runs are slower than expected: lower maxBooks, lower maxReviews, use direct URLs, or disable enableIsbnDiscovery for direct URL inputs.
• Invalid ISBN error: check the ISBN checksum, not only the number length.

FAQ

Can I scrape Literal.club reviews by book name?

Yes. Add book names in searchQueries, enable reviews, and set maxReviews. Direct book URLs are more precise when available.

Can I scrape Literal.club reviews by ISBN?

Yes. Add ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 values in isbns. This is usually cheaper and more accurate than broad title search.

Does this Actor scrape private Literal.club data?

No. It only reads public pages that are visible without logging in.

Why did a book return metadata but no review text?

Some public book pages expose metadata but do not render public review text. Try a public profile review page if you need profile-specific reviews.

What is the best input for large runs?

Use direct Literal.club book URLs or ISBNs, set a practical maxBooks, and cap maxReviews. Avoid broad searches when you already know the exact book pages.

Can I export Literal.club book reviews to CSV?

Yes. After the run finishes, open the Dataset tab and export as CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL, XML, or RSS.