How to Cite a Book in MLA
Updated November 2026
Citing a book in MLA comes down to one template and a handful of rules. Below: the exact 9th edition format, a real example produced by our citation engine, and the in-text form — or paste your source into the generator on this page and copy the finished citation.
The MLA format
Author Last, First. Title of Book. Edition ed., Publisher, Year.
MLA (9th edition) formats a book reference as shown above. A real example, generated by our citation engine:
Martin, Robert C. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Prentice Hall, 2008.
In-text(Martin)
Cite a book in MLA — free
Set up for this page. Paste and go.
An ISBN finds the book's details.
Citation style
MLA Handbook, 9th edition (2021). Title case for titles, and containers rather than fixed source types.
Finding the pieces
Or skip the hunt: Paste the ISBN (copyright page or back cover) into the generator. It works out what the source is, fills every field from the source's own record, and is already set to MLA.
- Author(s) — as printed on the title page
- Year — the copyright (©) year of your edition, on the copyright page
- Title and subtitle — from the title page; subtitles follow a colon
- Edition and publisher — also on the copyright page; first editions go unmarked
MLA's formatting rules at work
- Only the first author's name is inverted; co-authors appear in natural order with full first names
- Titles use Title Case — capitalize all principal words
- Source titles take quotation marks inside a container; standalone works are italicized
- The date sits near the end of the entry, in day-month-year form with abbreviated months
Book-specific pitfalls
- Use the copyright year of your edition, not the latest printing year
- Edited books put the editors in the author slot with an (Ed.)/(Eds.) or 'edited by' marker
- For a chapter in an edited collection, cite the chapter author, then the book and editors
In-text citations in MLA
MLA cites in the text with author and page: (Alvarez 12) — no comma, no year. Sources without page numbers (most web sources) cite the author alone: (Alvarez). Three or more authors use et al.: (Harris et al. 360).
No author? A shortened title stands in — quoted for articles and pages, italicized for whole works: ("First Words of Title").
Building the Works Cited
Every in-text citation pairs with a full entry on the Works Cited page, alphabetized by author. Add each citation to your bibliography as you generate it, and the Bibliography Builder assembles and exports the finished page to Word with the title, ordering, and indentation MLA requires.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the basic MLA format for a book?
- Author Last, First. Title of Book. Edition ed., Publisher, Year. — see the worked example above, generated by the same engine that powers the free citation tool.
- Does the ISBN appear in the citation?
- No — ISBNs never appear in any style's citation. But pasting the ISBN into the generator is the fastest way to build it, since the book's registry record fills every field.
- How do I cite a book in MLA in-text?
- Author and page with no comma: (Alvarez 12); author alone when no pages exist: (Alvarez).
- Can I get this citation in other styles too?
- Yes — every result in the generator renders APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE simultaneously. Generate once, switch styles with one click.