PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Book

How to Cite a Book in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a book gives the author's last name and first name, the book title in italics and title case, the edition when there is one, the publisher, and the year of publication. The in-text citation is the author's last name and the page, with no comma: (Benner 13). When an organization wrote and published the book, start the entry with the title instead.

The format

Last Name, First Name. Title of the Book: Subtitle of the Book. 2nd ed., Publisher, Year.

PERRLA MLA Experts ยท Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Type the book's ISBN or its title into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA finds the book and fills in the authors, the title, the edition, the publisher, and the year. Give the result a quick look against the book's title page and copyright page before you add it, because book databases don't always agree on an author's middle name or the edition. Then PERRLA puts the finished entry on your Works Cited page in alphabetical order, hanging indent and all.

Adding one by hand? Choose Book, then Book, e-book, or audiobook, then All or part of a book. Fill in the names and title the way the title page prints them, and type the edition as a number, like 11th. For an organization, set the contributor's role to Group Author (Organization). If the same organization published the book, type its name in the publisher's Name box exactly as you typed it as the author, and PERRLA starts the entry with the title, as MLA asks. PERRLA handles the title case, the italics, and the punctuation.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Author

Start with the author's last name, a comma, and their first name as the title page prints it, with any middle name or initial. End with a period.

Benner, Patricia.

Two authors: invert only the first name, then write and and the second author's name in normal order. Three or more: give the first author, a comma, and et al.

Polit, Denise F., and Cheryl Tatano Beck.

2. Title

Put the book title in italics and in title case: capitalize the first and last words and every major word in between. A subtitle follows a colon and starts with a capital letter. End with a period.

Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice.

3. Edition

If the book has an edition other than the first, put it right after the title, as a numeral with ed., followed by a comma. It isn't in italics or parentheses.

11th ed.,

A first edition gets no edition note. A revised edition is Rev. ed.,

4. Publisher

Give the publisher's name as the book shows it, minus business words like Inc., Co., or Ltd., followed by a comma. MLA 9 leaves out the city of publication for most books.

Wolters Kluwer,

Two publishers on the title page? List both, with a slash between them: Publisher One / Publisher Two.

When an organization wrote the book and also published it, don't name it twice. Skip the author, start the entry with the title, and name the organization only as the publisher.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed., American Psychological Association, 2020.

5. Year

End a print book's entry with the year of publication from the copyright page, followed by a period. Use the year of the edition you read, not the year the first edition came out.

2021.

6. DOI or URL

A print book ends with the year. If you read the book online, add its DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link, or its stable URL, after the year, then a period.

2001, https://doi.org/10.17226/10027.

Don't add an Amazon link or a library catalog link. See our e-book guide for books you read on a Kindle or another reading app.

Examples

A book with two authors and an edition

Polit and Beck's nursing research text, a staple of BSN and graduate research courses. Only the first author's name is inverted, the 11th edition goes right after the title, and both last names appear in the in-text citation.

  • In-text citation(Polit and Beck 52)
  • Narrative citationPolit and Beck explain that … (52).

A book with one author

Patricia Benner's 1984 book on how nurses grow from novice to expert. A first edition read in print: author, title, publisher, and year, and nothing more.

  • In-text citation(Benner 13)
  • Narrative citationAs Benner explains, … (13).

A book an organization wrote and published

The Publication Manual, written and published by the American Psychological Association. MLA skips the author so the name isn't repeated: the entry starts with the title, and the association appears once, as the publisher. The in-text citation then uses a short form of the title.

  • In-text citation(Publication Manual 117)
  • Narrative citationAccording to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, … (117).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a book gives the author's last name and the page number, with no comma and no p. between them.

  • One author: (Benner 13)
  • Two authors: both last names joined by and: (Polit and Beck 52)
  • Three or more authors: the first author and et al.: (Bowen et al.)
  • An organization as author: the organization's name, shortened to its shortest noun phrase if it's long, so the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine becomes (National Academies 25)
  • No author because the organization is the publisher: a short form of the title in italics, the first noun and the words before it: (Publication Manual 117). Don't cite the organization's name, because the Works Cited entry doesn't start with it.
  • Name in your sentence: give the page alone in parentheses at the end of the sentence: Benner describes five stages of clinical skill (13).

If you cite two books by the same author, add a short version of the title: (Benner, From Novice 13).

Common mistakes

  • (Polit & Beck, 2021, p. 52)(Polit and Beck 52)That's APA. MLA spells out and, leaves out the year, and puts no comma or p. before the page.
  • Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2021). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.Polit, Denise F., and Cheryl Tatano Beck. Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice. 11th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2021.MLA spells out first names, inverts only the first author, uses title case, and puts the year last, after the publisher.
  • Benner, Patricia. From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley, 1984.Benner, Patricia. From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice. Addison-Wesley, 1984.The city and the colon are older MLA habits. MLA 9 gives the publisher's name and a comma.
  • American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed., American Psychological Association, 2020.Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed., American Psychological Association, 2020.When the organization is both author and publisher, MLA starts with the title and names the organization once, as the publisher.
  • Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice. Eleventh edition, Wolters Kluwer, 2021.Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice. 11th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2021.MLA writes the edition as a numeral and abbreviates edition to ed.

Quick checklist

  • First author inverted, full first name as printed
  • Two authors joined by and; three or more: first author, et al.
  • Title in italics and title case
  • Edition as a numeral with ed., right after the title
  • Publisher with no city, then the year
  • Organization that wrote and published it: start with the title

Questions students ask

Do I include the city of publication in MLA 9?

Not for most books. MLA 9 gives the publisher's name and the year, with no city. A city shows up only in special cases, like a book printed before 1900.

Do I always need a page number when I cite a book in MLA?

Give the page whenever you quote or point to one passage, like (Benner 13). If you're referring to the book's main idea as a whole, the author's name is enough, in your sentence or in parentheses: (Benner).

Which year do I use if the book has several dates?

Use the most recent copyright year for the edition you read, usually on the back of the title page. Don't use the year the first edition came out or the date a store says it went on sale.

How do I cite a book written by an organization?

Put the organization's name where the author goes. If the same organization published the book, skip the author, start the entry with the title, and name the organization as the publisher. Your in-text citation then starts with a short form of the title.

Do I need a DOI for a book in MLA?

Only if you read the book online. A print book ends with the year. If you read it online and it has a DOI, add the DOI as a link after the year.

How is MLA different from APA for a book?

MLA spells out first names, uses title case, writes the edition as 11th ed. without parentheses, and puts the year at the end. In the text, MLA uses the page number (Benner 13) where APA uses the year.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements: author, title, version, publisher, and date) and chapter 6 (in-text citations, sections 6.3–6.30), section 5.61 on copublishers, and the MLA Style Center's posts on organizations as authors and publishers and on shortening titles. Example sources verified against Library of Congress and Open Library records, PERRLA's ISBN lookup, and the Publication Manual's DOI at Crossref.

PERRLA builds the Works Cited entry from the book's ISBN, title case, edition, and all.

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