The information needed to cite a book consists of three main components: the author, title, and publication information. If the citation is more than one line the second line (and those that follow) will be indented by 0.5 inches, creating a hanging indent.
The basic book format is as follows:
Author last name, first name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication date.
A Book By One Author
(If citing multiple books by the same author, as shown below, you will only type the authors full name in the first entry. Every entry after that type three hyphens in place of the author’s name)
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. Knopf, 2008.
---. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches and Meditations. Knopf, 2019.
A Book with Two Authors
Levitt, Steven D. and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. William Morrow, 2005.
A Book with Three or more Authors
(If you have a book with three or more authors, type the first author’s name [remember: last name, first name] followed by a comma and et al.)
Nelson, Donna J., et al., editors. Hollywood Chemistry: When Science Met Entertainment. American Chemical Society, 2013.
A Work in an Anthology
If citing a book from an anthology or collection, the format is as follows:
Author last name, first name. “Title of work in collection.” Title of collection, edited by ____ , Publisher, Publication date, Page range (pp or xx – xx).
Sedaris, David. “Guy Walks into a Bar Car.” The Best American Essays 2010, edited by Christopher Hitchens, Houghton Mifflin, 2010, pp. 169-178.
eBook
eBooks or electronic books have different citations than print. The format is:
Author last name, first name. Title. E-book, publisher, publication date. Name of eBook provider, URL (if needed).
Alam, Rumaan. Leave the World Behind. E-book, Ecco, 2020. Overdrive, https://mobius.overdrive.com/mobius-stchas/content/media/5207423?cid=119872.
*If you are citing an e-textbook you can truncate (shorten) the URL since it is behind a paywall and not openly accessible.* Use the "root" of the URL for your citation. Example: www.cengage.com
DVD/Feature Film
DVDs or films citations consist of the director name, studio, title, and release year. See below:
Title of film. Directed by ____ , Film studio or distributor, Release year.
The Revenant. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2016.