diff --git a/resolvers/author.py b/resolvers/author.py
index cf97c5f4..f23aba1b 100644
--- a/resolvers/author.py
+++ b/resolvers/author.py
@@ -50,7 +50,12 @@ async def get_author(_, _info, slug='', author_id=None):
             cache = await redis.execute('GET', f'id:{author_id}:author')
             logger.debug(f'result from cache: {cache}')
             q = select(Author).where(Author.id == author_id)
-            author_dict = json.loads(cache) if cache else get_with_stat(q)[0].dict()
+            author_dict = None
+            if cache:
+                author_dict = json.loads(cache)
+            else:
+                [author] = get_with_stat(q)
+                author_dict = author.dict()
             logger.debug(f'author to be stored: {author_dict}')
             if author:
                 await update_author_cache(author_dict)
diff --git a/services/db.py b/services/db.py
index 45cc005a..90ecca9d 100644
--- a/services/db.py
+++ b/services/db.py
@@ -57,6 +57,9 @@ class Base(declarative_base()):
                     data[c] = json.loads(str(value))
                 else:
                     data[c] = value
+            # Add synthetic field .stat
+            if hasattr(self, 'stat'):
+                data['stat'] = self.stat
             return data
         except Exception as e:
             logger.error(f'Error occurred while converting object to dictionary: {e}')