diff --git a/bookwyrm/views/search.py b/bookwyrm/views/search.py
index e1598056f..13695a7d4 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/views/search.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/views/search.py
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
 
 import re
 
-from django.contrib.postgres.search import TrigramSimilarity
+from django.contrib.postgres.search import TrigramSimilarity, SearchRank, SearchQuery
 from django.core.paginator import Paginator
+from django.db.models import F
 from django.db.models.functions import Greatest
 from django.http import JsonResponse
 from django.template.response import TemplateResponse
@@ -94,26 +95,28 @@ def book_search(request):
 
 def author_search(request):
     """search for an author"""
-    query = request.GET.get("q")
-    query = query.strip()
-    data = {"type": "author", "query": query}
+    query = request.GET.get("q").strip()
+    search_query = SearchQuery(query, config="simple")
+    min_confidence = 0
 
     results = (
-        models.Author.objects.annotate(
-            similarity=TrigramSimilarity("name", query),
-        )
-        .filter(
-            similarity__gt=0.1,
-        )
-        .order_by("-similarity")
+        models.Author.objects.filter(search_vector=search_query)
+        .annotate(rank=SearchRank(F("search_vector"), search_query))
+        .filter(rank__gt=min_confidence)
+        .order_by("-rank")
     )
 
     paginated = Paginator(results, PAGE_LENGTH)
     page = paginated.get_page(request.GET.get("page"))
-    data["results"] = page
-    data["page_range"] = paginated.get_elided_page_range(
-        page.number, on_each_side=2, on_ends=1
-    )
+
+    data = {
+        "type": "author",
+        "query": query,
+        "results": page,
+        "page_range": paginated.get_elided_page_range(
+            page.number, on_each_side=2, on_ends=1
+        ),
+    }
     return TemplateResponse(request, "search/author.html", data)