How to cite an audiobook in MLA style
Give readers a clear way back to the recording and passage you used, even when your audiobook has no page numbers.
About 3 min read
Summary
- Use the publication details of the recording you consulted in your Works Cited entry.
- Cite a passage with its audio time, and explain which chapter or file the clock measures.
- If your assignment requires printed page numbers, check the passage in the required written edition.
To cite an audiobook in MLA style, identify the recording in your Works Cited list and use an audio timestamp to locate a quoted or paraphrased passage. Cite the version you actually used. A printed book’s page number does not automatically describe a place in its audiobook.
The worked example below follows the MLA Style Center’s eighth-edition audiobook guidance. Use the handbook edition and citation template required by your assignment.
Build the Works Cited entry from the recording
Start with the book’s author and italicized title. Add the narrator when that credit helps identify the recording or matters to your discussion. Use the audiobook’s publisher and publication date, rather than copying those details from a print edition.
Include any translator and named edition credited by the recording.
A real recording example
LibriVox lists The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (version 2) by L. Frank Baum. Its Production details show “Read by” Phil Chenevert and “Catalog date” 2011-09-06. Its first section is labeled 01 - The Cyclone.
For a downloaded copy of that recording, an entry can read:
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Narrated by Phil Chenevert, LibriVox, 2011. Audiobook.
The final Audiobook. label identifies the medium and is optional under this guidance.
The year comes from this recording’s catalog date. “Version 2” is LibriVox’s recording label, not evidence of a second edition of Baum’s written book. The narrator and date help distinguish this recording without inventing a print-edition number.
This entry identifies the whole audiobook. The location of the passage belongs in the citation beside your discussion.
Point to the passage with a timestamp
Replay the passage and record its beginning and end as shown by the player’s audio clock. Give the time in hours, minutes, and seconds. Use the recording’s position, rather than a countdown of time remaining.
For illustration only, suppose a passage runs from 00:02:10 to 00:02:25 in the identified chapter. Its citation could be (Baum 00:02:10-00:02:25). Replace these invented times with positions checked in your recording.
“Baum” connects the citation to the Works Cited entry. If you already name Baum in the sentence, use just (00:02:10-00:02:25). The MLA’s in-text citation overview explains how the author reference and location work together for both quotations and paraphrases.
If the clock restarts for each chapter or file, identify that chapter or file in your prose before giving the time. For the LibriVox example, you could name chapter 1, “The Cyclone,” and explain that times are measured from the start of that chapter’s track. A whole-book timestamp and a chapter timestamp point to different places.
Check quoted words against the audio before using quotation marks. A generated transcript can help you search, but it is not proof of what the narrator said.
When an assignment asks for pages
If printed page numbers are required, locate and check the passage in the required written edition, then cite that edition. Do not convert listening time into a guessed page or borrow a page number from a different edition.
When your discussion uses both the recording and the written text, identify both sources and make clear which one supports each quotation or observation. If the assignment does not explain whether audio locators are acceptable, settle that requirement with your instructor before relying on them.