How To Write Book Titles

Titles of books that form a larger body of work may be put in quotation marks if the name of the book series is italicized.
How to write book titles. Rules for writing a book title in apa capitalization. Capitalize the first word and all words that have more than 4 letters. Italics for longer works such as books 2. Quotation marks for shorter works such as poems and articles. Having a title in place before you start writing can help inform or reinforce your themes and motifs as you plan your novel.
Your fiction title has done its job when it makes a prospective reader want to pick up your book or click on the title to take a peek inside. However ap style the guide used by journalists suggests putting titles in quotation marks not italicization. On an apa reference paper the rules are different from those used in mla and chicago. Titles of full works like books or newspapers should be italicized. Still i wouldn t recommend underlining a book s title.
Instead italicize the titles. There are also several different methods of capitalizing titles. Titles of short works like poems articles short stories or chapters should be put in quotation marks. Designate a book title as separate from the rest of your text by placing the complete title and subtitle if it has one in italics. Italicize book titles in the text of your paper.
To learn more about the planning process go here for a complete guide and a free book outline template. To learn one way to capitalize titles read this article. In contrast shorter articles essays or chapters within the book are enclosed in quotation marks. These methods do not always agree. Secondly if you don t already think of the title of your book as a marketing decision start now.
Each word in the title of the book should be written with a capitalized letter except prepositions like at of in on etc. As earlier mentioned the style used to write a title of a book vary based on the referencing style of the paper i e apa mla or chicago. If you are using mla style you should not underline book titles. Capitalization rules in english important note about capitalization rules for titles.