How to Cite a Book in APA Format (7th Edition)

The basic APA 7 book template

Author, A. A. (Year). _Title of work_ (Edition). Publisher.

A real example:

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random House.

What changes when there are multiple authors

APA 7 lists up to 20 authors by name. Use a comma between each author and an ampersand (&) before the last one. For 21 or more, list the first 19, an ellipsis (...), then the final author.

• One author: Brown, B.
• Two authors: Brown, B., & Smith, A.
• Three to twenty: Brown, B., Smith, A., & Lee, C.

Edition numbers

Add the edition in parentheses after the title and before the publisher. Don't italicize it.

Patel, P. K. (2024). Foundations of clinical practice (3rd ed.). Pearson.

E-books

If you read an e-book version, you don't need to say so unless the content differs from the print version (rare). Skip the format note; cite as if it were the print book.

Common mistakes

• Italicizing the publisher. Don't. Only the title is italicized.
• Including the city of publication. APA 7 dropped that.
• Writing the author's first name in full. Use initials only.

Generate the citation in one click

Plug your details into our APA book citation generator and copy the formatted result into your reference list.

Recommended: the APA Manual on your shelf

If you're writing more than two papers in APA this term, owning the manual saves you a lot of second-guessing. The 7th edition (the one we follow here) is the current standard.

Publication Manual of the APA, 7th edition (affiliate link — you pay the same price, we earn a small commission).