How to Cite a Book in APA Format
Although students may use a variety of other types of resources when writing a research paper, books remain one of the most commonly cited types of resources in research papers. Although books are relatively easy to cite, their proper citation can present some challenges for students. In this tutorial, we will provide an overview of how to properly cite a book in APA style. This should help student learn, not just the specific format for different types of books, but also the pattern that APA uses to establish the correct citation.
General Book APA Citation
Author Last Name, A.A. (Year of Publication). Title of work: Subtitle. City, State: Publisher.
For the state, you do not spell out the state name, but instead use the two-letter state abbreviation used in postal addresses. You can find a list of two-letter state abbreviations here.
How do I handle missing information?
If you have missing information, omit the information from your citation or indicate that it is missing. Do not guess and try to fill in missing information.
Do I include a URL?
If you are using a reference available only online or that you have accessed online, you want to include the URL where you referenced it. These books can include those found on websites or in databases. If the book is only available online, then you would substitute the URL for the Publisher information. However, if the book is available online and in print, you would the URL at the end of the citation. This would be preceded by one of two phrases. If the reader can retrieve the actual work at the URL without making a payment, then precede it with the phrase “Retrieved from.” If the reader has to take additional steps to access the work, then precede it with the phrase “Available from.”
Do I need to include the date I accessed it if the book was in electronic format?
The short answer to that question is no, but if there are specific reasons you think that the book at the URL might change after you reference it, you may want to make provisions to include the date. If you have questions about this, please submit a question in our Student Questions forum.
Google Books
For all of the examples in this tutorial, we looked them up in a database: Google Books. We love Google Books and the opportunities it provides students to research books outside of a library environment, but the reason we used it in this tutorial was so that you could use the URL to pull up each of the books we mention, in case you had any questions about what their copyright pages looked like in the books. We will show you how to format the book in APA format as if it were solely a print book, and then show you how to format them including the Google Book URL. You will notice that those references include “Available from” rather than “Retrieved from” information. That is because many of these books were previews, so that the whole addition was not available at the page.
Simple Book Format
The most basic format is a single-author book that is available in print.
Author Last Name, A.A. (Year of Publication). Title of work: Subtitle. City, State: Publisher.
We are going to begin with a classic: Dracula by Bram Stoker. In addition, we chose a version that was published during Stoker’s lifetime so that we didn’t have to deal with editors or anyone writing a forward. Instead, we focused on a single author book:
Author: Bram Stoker
Title: Dracula: A Mystery Story
Publisher: W.R. Caldwell & CO.
City of Publication: New York
Copyright: 1897
Taking the information provided we can write the following citation:
Stoker, B. (1897). Dracula: A mystery story. New York, N.Y.: W.R. Caldwell & Co.
Now, if you’ll remember, we told you not to fill in any information in the citation, but that does not prohibit you from using common sense. This copyright information only tells us New York, but we are aware that New York City is in New York State, therefore: New York, N.Y. You can make a similar assumption with other well-known cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. However, you may have to look in other locations in the book for publisher information if the publication information lists a city like Springfield; there are about 70 Springfields in the United States.
To indicate that we found the reference on Google Books, we would cite it as:
Stoker, B. (1897). Dracula: A mystery story. New York, N.Y.: W.R. Caldwell & Co. Available
from
https://books.google.com/books?id=k39vHp-5VeMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dracula&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK1tya54TUAhXMTSYKHQLkDM0Q6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=dracula&f=false,
Book with Multiple Authors
If a book has multiple authors, then the format is similar to the single author book, except that each author is mentioned, in the order that they are listed on the book. This rule applies up to 7 authors. After that point, after the sixth author’s name provide ellipses and then conclude with the last author’s name.
Last, A. A., & Last, B. B. (Year). Title: Subtitle. City, State: Publisher.
To see how to properly cite a book with multiple authors, we will look at Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman:
Authors: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Because Pratchett is mentioned first on the book’s cover, the citation will begin with Pratchett’s name.
Title: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
This publication information tells us whether or not this book has been previously published. This is important information in other formats, most notably MLA, but is not critical for APA citations.
Publisher: Harpertorch
Copyright: 2006
City: New York
State: New York
Putting it together, you get the following citation:
Pratchett, T. & Gaiman, N. (2006). Good omens: The nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch. New York, NY: Harpertorch.
To show that we found it on Google Books, then we cite it like this:
Pratchett, T. & Gaiman, N. (2006). Good omens: The nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch. New York, NY: Harpertorch. Available from https://books.google.com/books?id=7erEbfDOcgkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=pratchett+and+gaiman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim2KC76oTUAhVESyYKHVf8AwYQ6AEILjAB# v=onepage&q=pratchett%20and%20gaiman&f=false
Republished Books
We are going to stick with Good Omens for a moment. If you remember, we had some publication information that we were ignoring for our last citation. If we go back to that information, we see that the book was originally published in 1990:
Is this information important? Yes. However, for the purposes of creating a citation in APA format, it is not important. You do not have to include reference to prior publications when citing a republished book in APA format.
Therefore, the correct way to cite this book remains:
Pratchett, T. & Gaiman, N. (2006). Good omens: The nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes
Nutter, witch. New York, NY: Harpertorch.
Books with No Author
There are two circumstances where you are likely to encounter a book without an author. The first one is where there is actually an author, but instead of being an individual, the author is an organization, corporation, or other group author. You use the same format for them that you do for single author books, but use the name of the organization as the author:
Organization Name. (Year of Publication). Title of work: Subtitle. City, State: Publisher.
In MLA format, when the organization is the publisher, you omit the organization name at the beginning. It is important to realize that in APA format you do not follow this convention; if there is an organizational or corporate author, list the author, even if it is the same as the publisher.
You may also encounter a scenario where no author is mentioned at all; this commonly occurs in reference books like dictionaries and encyclopedias. In those instances, you begin the citation with the name of the book.
Title of work: Subtitle. (Year of Publication). City, State: Publisher.
Frequently, organizations act as their own publishers. In this case, the author name and the Publisher will be the same. The correct format then becomes:
Title. Publisher, Year.
Translated or Edited Books with Authors
Many students find translated or edited books can become difficult when it comes to creating citations. Translated and edited books follow a similar format, which begins with the author information, but includes their information after the book’s title. The big difference is that the translator is placed in parenthesis, but the editor is not. You would treat illustrators similar to translators, but abridgers similar to editors.
The basic format for an edited book with an author is:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title. E. E. Editor (Ed.). City, State: Publisher.
The basic format for a translated book is:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title. (T. T. Translator, Trans.) City, State: Publisher. (Original work published 1814)
Our example involves a translator:
Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Translator: Gregory Rabassa
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 2003; first published in 1970.
City: New York
State: NY
So, usually it would be:
Marquez, G.G. (2003). 100 years of solitude. (G. Rabassa, Trans.) New York, NY: Harper Collins. (Original work published 1970).
To show it was taken from Google Books:
Marquez, G.G. (2003). 100 years of solitude. (G. Rabassa, Trans.) New York, NY: Harper Collins. (Original work published 1970). Available from
https://books.google.com/books?id=pgPWOaOctq8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=100+yea rs+of+solitude&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQxtSW8YTUAhXDXyYKHSlPBMsQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=100%20years%20of%20solitude&f=false.
Book Editions
Students are often very intimidated by editions of books. However, citing editions follows the normal book format, simply adds in edition information.
Author, A. A. (Year). Title (xth ed.). City, State: Publisher.
Complicated Books
While most books are pretty straightforward, some of them can get really complicated, leaving students puzzled about what information they need to include. We picked one of our favorite books, which happens to have some pretty complicated bibliographic information to show students how to approach a complicated book in their reference list. There is a ton of publication information available about this book, but how much of it do you need to include?
Title: The Princess Bride: An Illustrated Edition of S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Author: William Golding
Abridger: William Golding
Illustrator: Michael Manomivibul
Edition: “The Good Parts” Version
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: 2013
Original publication date: 1973
City: New York
State: New York
Golding, W. (2013). The princess bride: An illustrated edition of S. Morgenstern’s classic tale
of true love and high adventure (“The good parts” version). W. Golding (Abridger).
(Michael Manomivibul, Illustrator). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
(Original work published 1973)
Refer the reader back to the Google Books format:
Golding, W. (2013). The princess bride: An illustrated edition of S. Morgenstern’s classic tale
of true love and high adventure (“The good parts” version). W. Golding (Abridger).
(Michael Manomivibul, Illustrator). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
(Original work published 1973) Available from
https://books.google.com/books?id=5eAwAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+princess+bride&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwn_X59ITUAhVJySYKHQNjB3YQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=the%20princess%20bride&f=false.
Now, you may wonder why you need all of this information. To answer that question, we suggest you look at the original version of The Princess Bride and the illustrated version that we used in our examples. They really aren’t the same book. Not only is the illustrated edition shorter, but the illustrations add something to the book that goes beyond the text found in the original version.
Chapters in Books
If the chapter is from an edited book or anthology, then follow the instructions for anthologies that you will find below. If the chapter is from a book by a single author, then use the following format:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In Book Title (pp. xx-yy). City, State: Publisher.
Anthologies or Edited Books
Often works are collected together in anthologies or other collections where the editors are responsible for putting the work together. When referencing an entire anthology, the editor(s) of the anthology are listed first:
Editor, E.E. (Ed.). (Year). Title. City, State: Publisher.
However, you will probably more frequently cite to an individual work in the anthology. In that case, you cite it as follows:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter of work. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx-yy). City, State: Publisher.
Multivolume Works
If you cite a volume in a multivolume work, then you want to indicate the volume number. It usually follows the title of the work, but, if there is an editor or translator, you would put it after the editor or translator’s name:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title (Vol. x). City, State: Publisher.
You can cite multiple volumes in the same work by including a volume range:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title (Vol. x-y). City, State: Publisher.
The Bible
The Bible is a very common source and does not require a citation in an APA reference list. However, if the version of the Bible you are using is important or you are using multiple versions, then include the version of the Bible you are using in your in-text citations, footnotes, or endnotes.
Electronic Books
It is always preferable to cite to a hard-copy of a book, if that is available. If the book has a doi, then use the doi in place of the URL. If it is not, then the citation format for an electronic book is:
Author, A. A. (publication date). Title of book. Retrieved from URL.
Although Pride and Prejudice is available in print format, for the purposes of this example, we will assume that we could only access an electronic copy:
Author: Jane Austen
Title: Pride and Prejudice
Copyright Date: 1918
Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons
Although we have the publisher information, because we accessed the book online, we can cite it as:
Austen, J. (1918). Pride and Prejudice. Retrieved from
Books accessed through Kindle or Nook have their own citation format:
Author, A. A. (Date of publication). Title of book [Kindle DX version].
Retrieved from Amazon.com
Author, A. A. (Date of publication). Title of book [Nook DX version].
Retrieved from Barnes and Noble
Conclusion
Any student who writes research papers or academic essays has to learn how to find and cite quality sources. While there are a number of great online research resources, nothing will ever replace the value of a book in a reference list. Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you familiarize yourself with APA citation format for books. If you have any questions about book types that were not included in this tutorial, please contact one of our writers or post the question in our Student Questions forum.