How To Write Book Titles
On an apa reference paper the rules are different from those used in mla and chicago.
How to write book titles. For example breakfast at tiffany s by truman capote to the lighthouse by virginia woolf a river runs through it and other stories by norman maclean lord of the flies by william gerald golding etc. 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. Capitalization rules in english important note about capitalization rules for titles. 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. Still i wouldn t recommend underlining a book s title.
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. Having a title in place before you start writing can help inform or reinforce your themes and motifs as you plan your novel. Capitalize the first word and all words that have more than 4 letters. To learn more about the planning process go here for a complete guide and a free book outline template.
Without a book title your book can t exist. Rules for writing a book title in apa capitalization. In contrast shorter articles essays or chapters within the book are enclosed in quotation marks. These methods do not always agree. However ap style the guide used by journalists suggests putting titles in quotation marks not italicization.
If you are using mla style you should not underline book titles. Each word in the title of the book should be written with a capitalized letter except prepositions like at of in on etc. There are also several different methods of capitalizing titles. Quotation marks for shorter works such as poems and articles. Italicize book titles in the text of your paper.
To encourage the reader to interact with your book your title should try to hint at the book s genre give readers a whiff of the story that follows and provoke curiosity. Secondly if you don t already think of the title of your book as a marketing decision start now. Instead italicize the titles. To learn one way to capitalize titles read this article.