Yes—do you italicize a book title? In most modern English style guides, yes: the title of a standalone published book is written in italics. Whether you are writing an essay, research paper, book review, blog post, or bibliography, formatting the title correctly helps readers understand that the words refer to a complete work rather than a section within a larger publication.
The Basic Rule for Book Titles
The standard rule is simple: italicize the full title of a standalone book. This includes the main title and any subtitle.
For example:
- The Hobbit
- Atomic Habits
- The Midnight Library: A Novel
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
- Where the Crawdads Sing
If the book has a subtitle, the subtitle is also italicized:
The Great Gatsby
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
The same rule applies whether the book is a novel, memoir, textbook, biography, self-help book, poetry collection, or nonfiction work.
Which Style Guides Require Italic Book Titles?
Most major academic and publishing styles call for book titles to be italicized, although there are a few differences in capitalization and reference-list formatting.
| Style guide | Book-title format |
|---|---|
| MLA | Italicize book titles and use title case |
| APA | Italicize book titles and use sentence case |
| Chicago Manual of Style | Italicize book titles and use title case |
| AP Style | Use quotation marks instead of italics in many news contexts |
MLA Style
Under MLA style, book titles are italicized in both the body of an essay and the Works Cited page.
Example:
Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby.
In a Works Cited entry, the book title is also italicized:
Fitzgerald, F. In real terms, scott. But The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.
APA Style
Under APA style, book titles are italicized and written in sentence case. This means only the first word of the title, the first word after a colon or dash, and proper nouns are capitalized Most people skip this — try not to. Surprisingly effective..
Example:
The psychology of money is a nonfiction book about financial decision-making That's the whole idea..
In an APA reference list, the title remains italicized:
Morgan, H. Think about it: (2020). Because of that, The psychology of money. Harriman House Nothing fancy..
Chicago Style
Chicago style also italicizes book titles. It generally uses title case, meaning major words are capitalized.
Example:
The Cold War: A World History examines global conflict after World War II Small thing, real impact..
Chicago style is commonly used in history, publishing, and many humanities fields.
AP Style
One important exception is AP style, which is widely used in journalism. AP generally places book titles in quotation marks rather than italics because newspaper and online layouts may not always support italic formatting Most people skip this — try not to..
Example:
She read The Great Gatsby for class.
In AP-style prose, this would usually appear as:
She read “The Great Gatsby” for class.
If you are writing for a newspaper, magazine
