Home » Write a book » Sources used in writing your book
When writing your book, you sometimes look for inspiration from other authors or the Internet. That’s not a problem, however, you must clearly mention this in your book. If you don’t do this correctly, you commit plagiarism.
Therefore, it is important to mention these sources every time.
When must you provide a citation?
If you use texts, excerpts, quotes, … from an existing text, the source must be stated. This also applies to photos.
What can happen if I don’t do this?
You may be accused of plagiarism. You put your name under someone else’s texts without permission of the (original) author.
Do other authors attach great importance to this?
Authors pass on their knowledge and even their emotions through their writings. They pour heart and soul into their work. It pleases them when others notice this and want to use it in their work. This is seen as a form of recognition. Acknowledgement is also very important for an author.
How do I mention a source in my book?
You can record this at the fragment or article itself or in the back in a list of references.
Book
References in your work (in text or in footnotes):
(Author, year of publication) or Author (year of publication)
Example:
The study concluded that … (Knight, 2014)
Knight (2014) compared several novels …
Sources in the bibliography:
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title: subtitle. (Edition). Place of publication: Name publisher.
Example:
De Ridder, H. (2014). Write your first novel. (1st edition). Tielt: Lannoo.
Journal article
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title of article. Name of the magazine, issue of volume (issue number), page where the article is mentioned.
Example:
De Ridder, H. (2014). Write your first novel. Creative Writing, 5 (2), pp.13.
Internet Resource
Author, A. A. (year of publication). Title. Accessed by date by URL
Example:
De Ridder, H. (2014). Write your first novel. Accessed April 26
2014 through https://www.createmybooks.com/BE/en/faq
If you can’t retrieve all the data, use this:
No name found: N.
No date found: s.d. (Which is Latin for a date: sin dato)
No location found: s.l. (Which is Latin for no place: sin loco)
On to the next step: Am I doing it right?