PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/E-book or Kindle book

How to Cite an E-book or Kindle Book in APA 7

APA 7 cites an e-book exactly like a print book: author, year, title in italics and sentence case, edition if any, publisher, and a DOI or a stable URL when the book has one. Don't mention Kindle, the e-book format, or the device. In text, cite the author and year, (Gawande, 2014). For a quote, use the page number if the e-book shows one. If it doesn't, use a chapter, a heading, or a paragraph number, never a Kindle location.

The format

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book: Subtitle (2nd ed.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Type the e-book's ISBN or its title into PERRLA's reference search. E-books have their own ISBN, usually on the copyright screen near the front or on the seller's product page, and PERRLA's search finds those too. PERRLA fills in the author, the year, the title in sentence case, the edition, and the publisher, the same as it would for the print book. If the book has a DOI, paste the DOI instead.

Adding one by hand? Choose Book, then Book, e-book, or audiobook, then All or part of a book. Leave the Format field blank: APA 7 doesn't name the e-book format or the device. Add a DOI, or a URL for a free online book like an OpenStax text. For a quote, pick Page number, Chapter, or Paragraph as the citation location. Need a chapter and a paragraph together? Choose Other, type Chapter 7, para. as the label, and type 3 as the value. Citing a heading? Choose Other, leave the label empty, and type the heading followed by the word section, like Hard Conversations section, as the value.

Look up
Paste the e-book's ISBN, get the reference

9781627790550

Gawande, A. (2014). Being mortal: Medicine and what matters in the end. Metropolitan Books.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author

Same as print: last name, comma, initials. Separate authors with commas and put an ampersand before the last one. An organization that wrote the book is the author.

Gawande, A.

2. Year

Use the copyright year on the e-book's copyright page, in parentheses. That's usually the same year as the print edition. Ignore the date you bought or downloaded it.

(2014).

3. Title and edition

Write the title in italics and sentence case, followed by the edition in plain parentheses if it isn't the first. No format label goes after the title: no [Kindle version], [E-book], or [EPUB].

Being mortal: Medicine and what matters in the end.

APA 6 asked for the format in brackets. APA 7 dropped it, because the content is the same whatever screen you read it on.

4. Publisher

Give the publisher, not the store or the device. Amazon, Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play, VitalSource, and your library's e-book database are where you got the book, not who published it.

Metropolitan Books.

When the author and the publisher are the same organization, leave the publisher out.

5. DOI or URL

If the e-book has a DOI, end with it as a link. If it has no DOI but lives at a free, stable web address anyone can open, like an OpenStax textbook, end with that URL instead.

https://openstax.org/books/fundamentals-nursing/pages/1-introduction

If you read it in a library database, a store app, or an e-textbook platform and it has no DOI, end the reference after the publisher. Don't add the database name or a link that only works after you log in. The reference is then exactly the same as for the print book.

Examples

A Kindle book with no DOI

Atul Gawande's book on aging, dying, and medicine, read on a Kindle. It has no DOI and no free URL, so the reference is identical to the print book's. Chapter 7, Hard Conversations, is the location in the citation.

  • Parenthetical citation(Gawande, 2014, Chapter 7)
  • Narrative citationGawande (2014, Chapter 7)

A free online textbook with a URL

OpenStax's Fundamentals of Nursing, a free textbook that anyone can read on the web. It has no DOI but a stable URL, so the URL goes at the end. With three authors, the in-text citation uses et al. from the first time.

  • Parenthetical citation(Bowen et al., 2024)
  • Narrative citationBowen et al. (2024)

An e-book with a DOI

The Institute of Medicine's Crossing the Quality Chasm, a landmark report on health care quality published as a book and downloaded as a PDF from the National Academies Press. It has a DOI, so the DOI ends the reference. The abbreviation IOM is defined in the first citation.

  • Parenthetical citation(Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2001)
  • Narrative citationInstitute of Medicine (IOM, 2001)
  • Later citations(IOM, 2001)

An e-textbook from a bookstore platform or library database

Polit and Beck's nursing research text, read as an e-textbook through a school's e-book platform or a library database. There's no DOI and the platform link needs a login, so the reference ends with the publisher, exactly like the print edition. Many e-textbook platforms show the print page numbers, and when yours does, the quote gets a page.

  • Parenthetical citation(Polit & Beck, 2021, p. 52)
  • Narrative citationPolit and Beck (2021, p. 52)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for an e-book is the same as for a print book: the author's last name and the year, (Gawande, 2014) or Gawande (2014). The only hard part is quoting, because e-books don't always have pages.

  • The e-book shows page numbers: use them. Many Kindle books and e-textbooks show the print edition's pages: (Polit & Beck, 2021, p. 52).
  • No page numbers: give the chapter, (Gawande, 2014, Chapter 7), or a paragraph number, counting paragraphs yourself if they aren't numbered.
  • No pages or chapter numbers, but headings: give the heading of the section you quoted, followed by the word section, with no quotation marks: (Gawande, 2014, Hard Conversations section). If the heading is long, shorten it and put the shortened heading in quotation marks.
  • Chapter and paragraph together: (Gawande, 2014, Chapter 7, para. 3).
  • Never a Kindle location: not (Gawande, 2014, loc. 2841). Locations change with the font size and the device, so no reader can find the passage.

For a group author, define a well-known abbreviation in the first citation, (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2001), and use (IOM, 2001) after that. Want more ways to cite material without page numbers? Our post Citing Material Without Page Numbers covers every option.

Common mistakes

  • Gawande, A. (2014). Being mortal: Medicine and what matters in the end [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.comGawande, A. (2014). Being mortal: Medicine and what matters in the end. Metropolitan Books.The [Kindle version] label and "Retrieved from" a store are APA 6 habits. APA 7 cites the e-book like the print book and names the publisher, not the store.
  • (Gawande, 2014, loc. 2841)(Gawande, 2014, Chapter 7)Kindle location numbers aren't stable across devices or font sizes. Use a page number if the book shows one, or a chapter and paragraph.
  • Institute of Medicine. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century. National Academy Press. Retrieved from NCBI Bookshelf.Institute of Medicine. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century. National Academy Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10027Don't name the database or platform where you read an e-book. The same book is in many places. When it has a DOI, the DOI is how the reader finds it.
  • Bowen, C., Draper, L., & Moore, H. (2024). Fundamentals of nursing [E-book]. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/fundamentals-nursing/pages/1-introductionBowen, C., Draper, L., & Moore, H. (2024). Fundamentals of nursing. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/fundamentals-nursing/pages/1-introductionNo format label in brackets. The URL already tells the reader where to find it online.

Quick checklist

  • Same format as the print book
  • No [Kindle], [E-book], or device name, and nothing in the Format field
  • The publisher, not Amazon, Apple, VitalSource, or the database
  • A DOI if the book has one, or a free stable URL if it doesn't
  • No database name and no login-only links
  • Quotes cite a page, a chapter, or a paragraph, never a Kindle location

Questions students ask

How do I cite a Kindle book in APA 7?

Cite it like the print book: author, year, title in italics, edition, and publisher. Don't add [Kindle] or the Amazon link. For a quote, use the page number if your Kindle shows one, or the chapter and paragraph if it doesn't.

Can I use Kindle location numbers in an APA citation?

No. APA Style says not to use them, because locations depend on the device and font size. Many Kindle books based on print editions can show the print page numbers, so use those. If yours can't, cite the chapter, a heading, or a paragraph number.

Do I include the URL for an e-book?

Only if the e-book has no DOI and the URL is free and stable, so anyone can open it. A library database link, a store page, or an e-textbook link that needs a login doesn't count. In those cases, end the reference after the publisher.

Is an e-textbook from VitalSource or my school's bookstore cited differently?

No. Cite the e-textbook like the print textbook, with the edition you used. Use the page numbers the platform shows for quotes. Leave the platform's name out of the reference.

What about an audiobook?

Audiobooks are handled a little differently. If you're writing about the narration, or the audio version differs from the print book, APA 7 adds the narrator and [Audiobook]. Quotes use a timestamp instead of a page. See our audiobook guide.

The e-book and print versions have different years. Which do I use?

Use the copyright year on the copyright page of the version you read. They're usually the same. If the e-book is a reissue of a much older book, cite it as a republished book, with the original year at the end.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.13, 8.28, 9.29, 9.30, 9.34–9.35, and 10.2, and the APA Style website's book and ebook references and direct quotation of material without page numbers pages. Example sources verified against the publishers' pages, OpenStax's citation information, Library of Congress catalog records, and each DOI.

PERRLA builds the e-book reference from its ISBN or DOI, with no format labels to remember.

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