Writing citations for your APA reference list is easy if you follow the basic format. Remember to use the author’s last name and then only the initials for the first and middle names. Also, include all the necessary elements so that your reader can find the exact source you used. The APA citation format for a book follows the author-date style, which means the year of publication will follow the author’s name.
APA Book Citation – One Author
The basic format for citing a book with a single author in APA style is as follows:
Last Name of author, Initial first name, Initial middle name (if available). (Year of publication). Book title. Location: Publisher.
Author, A.A. (2001). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Examples
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.
Wright, S. (Ed.). (2004). The anthropology of organizations. London: Routledge.
Fleming, Q. (2003). Project procurement management: contracting, subcontracting, teaming .PA: FMC Press.
Self-Published Example
Zamora, C.R. (2019). Walking my way home: A memoir. Los Angeles, CA: Author.
Print Book With 2 to 7 Authors
When you want to create an APA citation for a book with between two and seven authors, use a comma and an ampersand (&) before the final author in the list. The format is otherwise identical to a print book with a single author.
Last Name of first author, Initial first name, Initial middle name (if available), & last name of second author, Initial first name, Initial middle name (Year of publication). Book title. Location: Publisher.
Author, A.A., & Author, B.B. (2000). Book title. Location: Publisher.
Examples
Troyna, B., & Hatcher, R. (2018). Racism in children’s lives: A study of mainly-white primary schools. Routledge. London.
Hoel, H., Rayner, C., & Cooper, C. L. (1999). Workplace bullying. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Alberts B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., & Walter, P. (2002). Molecular biology of the cell. New York: Garland Publishing.
Citing a Print Book With 8 or More Authors
Follow the format above up to and including seven authors. Beyond that, you should include the first six authors’ names, then insert three ellipsis points, and then the final author, followed by the rest of the citation data.
Author, A.A., Author, B.B., Author, C.C., Author, D.D., Author, E.E., Author, F.F.,…Author, G.G. (2001). Book title. Location: Publisher.
Example
Jaramillo, C., Gilbert, A.N., Bulixi, T.P., Farland, N., Smith, L.J., Leland, K.,…Wintle, N. (2012). Understanding new technology. New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
Book Citation Guidelines in APA
When formatting your book citations, be sure to follow these general rules:
- Use the author’s last name, first initial, and middle initial, if available.
- The title of book is in italics with only the first word capitalized.
- The subtitle is also in italics, also with only first word capitalized (e.g., Book main title: Subtitle of this book).
- Double space your reference list entries.
- Use a hanging indent.
Include Current Sources
Published books, both print and digital, can be valuable sources of information for your school paper. When gathering research materials, though, you shouldn’t rely on an APA book citation alone. Keep current by looking up academic journals and other articles too.