How to Cite a Book in APA, MLA and Chicago

What you need before you cite a book

Every citation style is built from the same few details, and most errors start with collecting them from the wrong place. Use the title page (the page inside the book with the full title, author and publisher) and the copyright page on its reverse, not the cover, which may shorten the title or drop the subtitle. In an ebook, look for the same pages near the start of the file.

The examples in this guide use real books, chiefly Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). Book titles appear in plain text here; in your paper, italicize them in all three styles. For each book you cite, record:

• The author or authors exactly as named, or the editors if no one is named as author of the whole book.
• The full title and subtitle.
• The edition, if it is not the first, such as “2nd ed.” or “Revised edition.”
• Any translator or editor the title page names.
• The publisher, as given on the title page.
• The year of the edition you used; a new printing or reprint is not a new edition.
• The place of publication, needed only for Chicago 17th.
• Page numbers for anything you quote or paraphrase.

How to cite a book in APA, MLA and Chicago at a glance

The three styles use the same information in a different order and format. If you switch between styles across courses, the two habits that trip people up most are APA's sentence-case titles and Chicago's place of publication. Here is one single-author book in each style:

How to cite a book in APA (7th edition)

The APA pattern is: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work: Subtitle (Edition). Publisher. Add a DOI or URL at the end if the book has one. Capitalize only the first word of the title and subtitle and any proper nouns. The 7th edition leaves out the place of publication.

In-text, give the author and year, plus a page number for quotations and specific points: (Kahneman, 2011, p. 25), or Kahneman (2011) in a sentence. Two authors take an ampersand in parentheses, (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008), and “and” in running text. Three or more shorten to the first author plus “et al.” from the first citation. A translated classic shows both dates: (Tolstoy, 1869/2007). For the full system, see the APA citation guide.

• Two authors: Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Yale University Press.
• Edition: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (3rd ed.). Publisher.
• Translation: Tolstoy, L. (2007). War and peace (R. Pevear & L. Volokhonsky, Trans.). Alfred A. Knopf. (Original work published 1869)
• Edited book: Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year). Title of book. Publisher.
• Chapter in an edited book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. 45–67). Publisher.

How to cite a book in MLA (9th edition)

MLA builds every entry from the same core elements in a fixed order: Author. Title of source. Title of container, Contributor, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. For a book most of those slots are empty, which gives the familiar pattern: Last name, First name. Title: Subtitle. Publisher, Year. Titles use title case, and the place of publication is left out.

In-text, MLA uses the author's last name and the page number with no comma and no “p.”: (Kahneman 25). If you name the author in your sentence, the parentheses hold only the page. Two authors appear as (Thaler and Sunstein 6). MLA shortens “University Press” to “UP” in the works-cited list. The MLA citation guide covers the full template.

• Two authors: Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Yale UP, 2008.
• Three or more authors: the first author's name, then “et al.”
• Edition: Last name, First name. Title. 2nd ed., Publisher, Year.
• Translation: Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
• Chapter in an edited collection: Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” Title of Book, edited by First Last, Publisher, Year, pp. 45–67.

How to cite a book in Chicago (17th edition)

Chicago offers two systems, and your instructor or field decides which. Notes and bibliography, common in history and the humanities, uses numbered footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography. Author-date, common in the sciences and social sciences, uses parenthetical citations plus a reference list. Both include the place of publication. The Chicago style citation guide explains when each is used.

Tricky book citations: ebooks, chapters, no author and old books

These are the cases that most often stall a reference list:

• Ebooks: APA cites an ebook like a print book, adding a DOI or URL if there is one. MLA lets you note the version, such as “e-book ed.,” after the title. Chicago adds the format, such as Kindle, or a URL at the end. Where pages are not fixed, cite a chapter or section instead.
• A chapter with its own author in an edited book: cite the chapter and its author, with the editors and the chapter's page range. Citing only the book hides who wrote the part you used.
• No author: in all three styles, start the entry with the title, or with the editor if there is one. Use “Anonymous” only if the book itself is signed that way.
• Older works in new editions: cite the edition you read. APA adds the original date at the end and in the in-text citation; MLA and Chicago let you add the original year when it matters to your argument.

A routine so you never hunt for a citation later

Most citation trouble is not formatting; it is missing information discovered the night before a deadline. A small routine prevents it:

1. 1When you first open a book, photograph or copy its title page and copyright page.
2. 2Write the page number beside every note, quotation and paraphrase at the moment you take it.
3. 3Check which style the assignment requires, and which edition of that style.
4. 4Build each entry element by element from the pattern, rather than copying someone else's reference list.
5. 5If you use a citation generator, check its output for capitalization, edition and publisher.
6. 6Before you submit, match every in-text citation to an entry in the list, and every entry to at least one citation.