Citation guides

How to Cite a Book: APA, MLA and Harvard with Examples

Complete guide to citing a book in APA 7, MLA 9 and Harvard style, including edited books, chapters, ebooks, multiple authors and no-author cases.

Books are the backbone of most reference lists, and every citation style handles them slightly differently. The good news is that once you understand the logic of one style, adapting to the others is mostly a matter of punctuation. This guide covers standard books, multiple authors, edited books, individual chapters, ebooks, and the edge cases that trip students up most often.

What information do you need?

• Author(s): surname and initials (APA/Harvard) or full name (MLA).
• Year of publication: from the copyright page, not the reprint date.
• Title and subtitle: full title as printed on the title page.
• Edition: only if it is not the first edition.
• Publisher: the company that published it, not the printer.
• Place of publication: not needed in APA 7, MLA 9 or Cite Them Right 13th edition (2025). Older Harvard variants still ask for it.
• DOI or URL: for ebooks, when available.

APA 7th edition

APA uses the author-date system. In the reference list, the year comes directly after the author. Book titles are in italics and use sentence case: only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon get a capital letter. See more formats in the APA citation generator.

APA: book with one author

APA: book with two authors

APA: book with three or more authors

List all authors in the reference entry (up to 20; for 21 or more, list the first 19 then an ellipsis and the final author). In the in-text citation, use the first author's name followed by "et al." from the first citation onwards.

APA: edited book

When you refer to the whole edited book rather than one chapter, the editor goes in the author position, followed by "(Ed.)" for one editor or "(Eds.)" for multiple.

APA: chapter in an edited book

When you used one specific chapter, cite the chapter author first. The editors and book title come later, in a "In … (Ed.)" construction. Include the page range of the chapter.

APA: ebook with a DOI

APA: later edition

MLA 9th edition

MLA uses the author-page system for in-text citations. Book titles are italicised and use title case, with every main word capitalised. The MLA citation generator handles the inverted-name format automatically.

MLA: book with one author

MLA: book with two authors

MLA: book with three or more authors

In the Works Cited list, name only the first author followed by "et al." for three or more authors. In-text, do the same.

MLA also shortens publisher names: "University Press" becomes "UP" ("U of Chicago P" for the University of Chicago Press) and an ampersand becomes "and" ("Allyn and Bacon").

MLA: edited book

MLA: chapter in an edited book

MLA: ebook

If you read the ebook on a device, put "e-book ed." (or "Kindle ed.") in the version slot, after the title and any edition. If you read it on a website or database, add the URL or DOI at the end.

Harvard style

Harvard is an author-date family of styles. The examples below follow Cite Them Right, 13th edition (2025), which no longer includes the place of publication. Earlier editions and some university variants still write it before the publisher name ("London: Penguin"). Check your institution's guide for small differences, or use the Harvard reference generator.

Harvard: book with one author

Harvard: book with two authors

Harvard: book with three or more authors

Name up to three authors in full in the in-text citation. From four authors onwards, use the first author's name followed by "et al." Some universities shorten long author lists in the reference list too, so check your guide.

Harvard: edited book

Harvard: chapter in an edited book

Harvard: ebook with a DOI

Common mistakes when citing books

• Using the printing year instead of the edition's publication year. The copyright page shows the year of the edition you read, not the year of each printing. If you read a republished classic, APA uses the year of the edition you read and adds "(Original work published YYYY)" at the end of the reference.
• Forgetting sentence case in APA. "The Elements of Style" becomes "The elements of style". Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalised.
• Skipping the edition number. If the book you used is not the first edition, the edition number must appear in the reference so readers find the same version.
• Citing a chapter as if it were a whole book. If you read chapter 3 of an edited book, cite the chapter author, not just the editor, and include the page range.
• Mixing Harvard editions. Cite Them Right 13th edition (2025) dropped the place of publication, but earlier editions and some university variants still require it. Follow the guide your department names, and do not mix the two forms in one list.
• Copying the cover title instead of the title page. Subtitles and punctuation on the cover sometimes differ from the title page. The title page is always authoritative.

Quick-reference table

For any source type not covered here (journal articles, reports, theses, government documents), paste the URL or DOI into the free citation generator and CitApp fetches the metadata and formats the reference for you automatically.