Book Citation Generator
Search for a book by title or author, or type its details by hand, and get the reference-list entry plus the in-text citation or footnote in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 and 10,834 other styles. Add the pages or chapter you used if you need them. Free, no sign-up.
How to Use the Book Citation Generator
- 1. Find the book. Open the Search Books tab and type a title, an author or both. Pick the edition you read from the results — the cover, year and publisher help you choose. No match? Use Manual Entry, leave the source type on Book and type the details.
- 2. Add pages or a chapter if you need them. The book details box has optional fields for a page range and a chapter. Leave them empty to cite the whole book.
- 3. Choose a style. Pick APA, MLA, Chicago or any of the 10,834 styles in the list. The reference and the matching in-text citation (a footnote in Chicago notes and bibliography) appear together.
- 4. Check, edit and copy. Compare the author names, edition and publisher with your copy. Search results can arrive with the author as one string (full first names in APA, for example): open Edit and save to have the name reformatted. Then Copy. Only have the ISBN? The ISBN Citation Generator is the shorter route.
What a Book Citation Contains
Every book citation answers the same questions: who wrote it, when, what it is called, which edition, and who published it. The styles arrange the answers differently. None of the three asks for the city of publication or the ISBN; Chicago 18 does not require a place for books.
| APA 7 | MLA 9 | Chicago 18 (bibliography) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern | Author, A. A. (Year). Title in sentence case (2nd ed.). Publisher. | Author, First. Title in Title Case. 2nd ed., Publisher, Year. | Author, First. Title in Title Case. 2nd ed. Publisher, Year. |
| Title | Italic, sentence case | Italic, title case | Italic, title case |
| Author names | Surname and initials; up to 20 listed | One author, or first author and et al. for three or more | Up to six listed; seven or more: first three and et al. |
| In text | (Author, Year, p. 45) | (Author 45) | Footnote with the page; shortened note after the first |
Edition goes after the title and only when it is not the first. A book with editors and no author starts with the editor's name followed by (Ed.) in APA, editor in MLA and ed. in Chicago.
Book Citation Examples
A single-author book, Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.
APA 7th edition
Reference list:
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
In-text (parenthetical):
(Kahneman, 2011, p. 45)
In-text (narrative):
Kahneman (2011)
MLA 9th edition
Works Cited:
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
In-text citation:
(Kahneman 45)
Chicago 18th edition (notes and bibliography)
Footnote:
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 45.
Shortened note:
Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 45.
Bibliography:
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
A later edition with three authors — Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker, 11th edition.
Three authors, 11th edition
APA reference:
Halliday, D., Resnick, R., & Walker, J. (2018). Fundamentals of physics (11th ed.). Wiley.
APA in-text:
(Halliday et al., 2018)
MLA Works Cited:
Halliday, David, et al. Fundamentals of Physics. 11th ed., Wiley, 2018.
MLA in-text:
(Halliday et al.)
Chicago footnote:
David Halliday et al., Fundamentals of Physics, 11th ed. (Wiley, 2018).
Chicago bibliography:
Halliday, David, Robert Resnick, and Jearl Walker. Fundamentals of Physics. 11th ed. Wiley, 2018.
Common Mistakes
- Sentence case in MLA or Chicago. Only APA lowercases the title after the first word, subtitle and proper nouns. MLA and Chicago capitalize the main words.
- Citing the wrong edition. Page numbers and even chapters change between editions. Cite the one you actually read; a search result can list several.
- Adding the city. APA 7 dropped the publisher's location, MLA 9 omits it, and Chicago 18 does not require it.
- Putting the page in the reference. A page belongs in the in-text citation or footnote. The reference describes the whole book unless you cite a chapter.
- Skipping the check. Catalogue records contain typos, wrong years and reprint dates. Compare the result with the title page and the copyright page.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| You have | Use |
|---|---|
| A title or an author, or a printed book in your hand | This page |
| An ISBN | ISBN Citation Generator |
| A book read on a Kindle, an app or a library site | Ebook Citation Generator |
| One chapter written by its own author in an edited book | Book Chapter Citation Generator |
| A whole edited collection | Anthology Citation Generator |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I cite a book in APA 7?
- Give the author's surname and initials, the year in parentheses, the title in italics and sentence case, the edition if it is not the first, and the publisher: Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In text: (Kahneman, 2011). Add p. and the page number when you quote.
- How do I cite a book in MLA 9?
- Author, then the title in italics and Title Case, then any edition, the publisher and the year, separated by commas: Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. In text, use the author's surname and the page: (Kahneman 45).
- How do I cite a book in Chicago style?
- In notes and bibliography style the first footnote gives the full details with the author's name in normal order: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 45. The bibliography entry inverts the first author's name and ends with the year. CMOS 18 does not require the city of publication.
- Can I cite a book without an author?
- If the book has an editor but no author, put the editor first and mark the role: (Ed.) in APA, editor in MLA, ed. in Chicago. If no person is named at all, start with the title instead and alphabetize by its first significant word.
- Which edition should I cite?
- The one you read. Page numbers differ between editions, and APA, MLA and Chicago all show the edition number after the title when it is not the first. The Search Books tab lists several editions of a popular title, so check the year and publisher against your copy.
- When do I need a page number?
- Whenever you quote, and in APA also for a close paraphrase of a specific passage. APA writes p. 45 after the year, MLA writes the bare number after the author's name, and Chicago puts the page at the end of the footnote.
- Which citation styles can I choose?
- APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago 18 are at the top of the list, and you can switch to Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA or any of the other 10,834 styles. Each one formats the same details, so you can switch without re-entering anything.
- Does the generator include the ISBN or the place of publication?
- No. None of the three styles asks for either. The ISBN is only used to look the book up.
Related Tools
How to cite a Book in each style
Format rules, templates, and worked examples for the styles most often required.