To cite a book in APA style, you need two elements: a reference list entry at the end of your paper and an in-text citation wherever you mention the book. The basic reference format follows four parts in this order: author, date, title, and publisher. Here’s what each looks like in practice.
The Standard Book Reference Format
A reference list entry for a book follows this structure:
Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year). Title of book: Subtitle if any. Publisher Name.
A real example looks like this:
Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy. American Psychological Association.
A few formatting details matter here. The book title is italicized and written in sentence case, meaning only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized. The year goes in parentheses. A period follows the author name, the closing parenthesis of the year, and the publisher name. You do not include the publisher’s location.
In-Text Citations
Every time you reference a book’s ideas in your paper, you include a short citation in the text. APA gives you two options:
- Parenthetical: Place the author’s last name and year in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Example: (Brown, 2018).
- Narrative: Work the author’s name into the sentence itself and put only the year in parentheses. Example: Brown (2018) argued that…
When you directly quote from a book, you also need to include the page number. Use “p.” for a single page and “pp.” for a range. A direct quote citation looks like this: (Brown, 2018, p. 42) or (Brown, 2018, pp. 42-48). If the pages are not consecutive, separate them with a comma: (pp. 67, 72). If the work has no page numbers, provide another locator like a chapter number or section heading so the reader can find the passage.
Books With Multiple Authors
The rules change depending on how many authors the book has.
Two Authors
List both authors in the reference entry, separated by a comma and an ampersand:
Salas, E., & D’Agostino, M. (2020). Title of book. Publisher.
In parenthetical citations, use the ampersand: (Salas & D’Agostino, 2020). In narrative citations, spell out “and” instead: Salas and D’Agostino (2020).
Three or More Authors
In the reference list, include every author’s name up to 20 authors. In your in-text citations, however, you shorten things significantly: list only the first author followed by “et al.” This applies from the very first citation onward.
Reference list: Martin, A. B., Chen, R., & Lopez, S. (2020). Title of book. Publisher.
In-text (parenthetical): (Martin et al., 2020)
In-text (narrative): Martin et al. (2020)
Chapters in Edited Books
When you want to cite a specific chapter written by one author inside a book edited by someone else (common with anthologies and academic collections), the format is different from a standard book citation. You cite the chapter author, not the editor, as the primary author, and you include the page range of the chapter.
The format looks like this:
Chapter Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.
Use “(Ed.)” for one editor and “(Eds.)” for multiple editors. If the book has an edition number, include it in the same parentheses as the page range, separated by a comma: (2nd ed., pp. 12-35).
One important distinction: you only use this chapter format for edited collections where different authors wrote different chapters. If a single author or group of authors wrote the entire book, cite the whole book and reference the chapter in your text. For example, you might write: “In Chapter 3, Brown (2018) describes…” while your reference list entry points to the full book.
Ebooks and Digital Books
APA uses the same format for print books and ebooks. You do not mention the format, platform, or device (so leave out “Kindle edition” or “PDF”). What changes is the ending of the reference, depending on whether the ebook has a DOI or URL.
A DOI (digital object identifier) is a permanent link assigned to many academic publications. If the book has one, add it at the end of the reference as a full URL:
Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000
If there’s no DOI but the ebook has a stable URL that readers can access, include that URL instead. If the ebook comes from an academic database and has neither a DOI nor a stable URL, simply end the reference after the publisher name, exactly like a print book. Do not include the database name in any case.
Books With Editions or Volumes
When a book specifies an edition or volume number, include that information in parentheses right after the title, before the period. This parenthetical is not italicized, even though it sits right next to the italicized title.
Last name, A. A. (Year). Title of book (3rd ed.). Publisher.
For a specific volume of a multivolume work:
Last name, A. A. (Year). Title of book (Vol. 2). Publisher.
If you need both: (2nd ed., Vol. 4).
Quick Reference Checklist
Before you submit your paper, run through these points for each book citation:
- Author names: Last name first, then initials only. Use an ampersand before the final author.
- Year: In parentheses, followed by a period.
- Title: Italicized, in sentence case. Include subtitle after a colon if there is one.
- Publisher: No location, just the publisher name followed by a period.
- DOI/URL: Include a DOI if available. Include a stable URL if no DOI exists. Skip both for print books or database books without either.
- In-text citations: Use “et al.” for three or more authors. Always include page numbers for direct quotes.
- Each in-text citation must match exactly one entry in your reference list.