pretty links don’t go to author.php when author is post-less

I have a list of authors. Some of these authors do not have posts but I want to link to their author page anyways just to show their info and maybe a pretty picture or something. I added a parameter to my list_authors called $force_link so that even post-less authors will get a link.

Because I have pretty links, the link it creates is something like: https://www.website.com/author/authorname/

When clicked, this link goes to the author.php template page UNLESS the author is post-less in which case it goes to the 404 page.

And if I make a link like https://www.website.com/?author=9 , that link will take me to the author.php template regardless of whether the author has posts or does not have posts.

Though I could just change the links of post-less authors to not be pretty, I don’t understand why my pretty links can’t just work.