How to cite a book in APA

Use the format Surname, F. M. - surname, then initials with a period after each. Separate two authors with a comma and an ampersand: Lin, M., & Okafor, C. From three authors up to twenty, list every author separated by commas, with the ampersand before the final name. Hyphenated given names keep their hyphen in the initials (Marie-Claire Lin becomes Lin, M.-C.). Suffixes like Jr. or III follow the initials after a comma: Carter, J. M., Jr.

The copyright year of the edition you are citing, in parentheses. For a 2018 reissue of a 1962 work, use the reissue year here and add the original year at the end of the reference (covered in the edge cases below). Use (n.d.) if no date is given anywhere in the book.

Sentence case - capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or em dash, and proper nouns. Italicize the entire title, including the subtitle. This is the rule that catches most students: Patterns in academic prose, not Patterns in Academic Prose.

Include only if you are not citing the first edition. Use the abbreviation (2nd ed.), (3rd ed.), (Rev. ed.) for revised, or (Vol. 2) for a single volume of a multivolume work. The edition note sits in parentheses after the title, before the period.

Just the publisher name, with no city or state - APA 7 removed publisher location from book references entirely. Drop business descriptors like Inc., Ltd., and Co., but keep meaningful words such as Press, Books, and Publishing. If two publishers are listed on the title page, separate them with a semicolon. If the author and the publisher are the same organization, give the author and omit the publisher.

If the book has a DOI, include it formatted as https://doi.org/.... If there is no DOI but the book is available online, include the URL. Do not write Retrieved from - that prefix was removed in APA 7. Print books with no DOI end at the publisher.