bibliottHow to Cite a Book in MLA 9th edition
Format, in-text rule, and a copy-paste example for books in MLA. Citing a printed or e-book monograph, including academic, trade, and self-published titles.
MLA format for books
Author Last, First. Title of Book. Edition, Publisher, Year.
Brown, Peter. Citation in the Digital Age. 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2021.
Pro tip
MLA uses abbreviations like UP (University Press), and lowercase article words in the publisher name (e.g. Oxford UP).
Information you need
Before generating your MLA citation, gather these details from the book:
Author
Year
Title
Edition (if not first)
Publisher
Common mistakes to avoid
✗Italicizing the chapter title instead of the book title
✗Including the city when modern style omits it (APA 7, AMA 11)
✗Forgetting to mark "2nd ed." or "Rev. ed."
Other MLA guides
Frequently asked questions
For a book in MLA, you'll need: Author, Year, Title, Edition (if not first), Publisher. bibliott auto-detects most of these from a URL or DOI.
Italicizing the chapter title instead of the book title
Yes — the example follows the official MLA 9th edition format. Replace the author, title, year and other fields with your source's data, or use the bibliott generator to do it automatically.