Trouble with posts_link in Get Author Profile Plugin

I had my contributors page working nicely, and then I decided that it would be nice if each author’s name was a link to the author page. I am already using the Get Author Profile Plugin. I changed <?php author_profile('nickname'); ?> to <?php author_profile('posts_link'); ?> but all that did is echo the uri to the author template–it didn’t actually make a hyperlink. So then I tried to set it up as a hyperlink, like so:
<a href="<?php author_profile('posts_link'); ?>>"<?php author_profile('nickname'); ?></a> but that made it so nothing showed up–no author name and no author uri. As far as I can tell, I am not nesting php, so that shouldn’t be the problem. Then I thought maybe it doesn’t work because the link has to be returned, not echoed. (My understanding of these terms is shaky at best.) So I also tried it this way:
<a href="<?php author_profile('posts_link', FALSE); ?>>"<?php author_profile('nickname'); ?></a>
Still nothing. Can someone point out my mistake? Thanks.