How do I cite an ebook in a paper?

Help! Where are the page numbers? The location isn't stable!

I am the bearer of some good news! Citation styles are catching up with the times, and most all of them have a method of citation for Kindles and other common e-books. The bad news is that location numbers (those little page-looking numbers on most Kindle books) and the percentages vary widely and are not something you can use in citation. Instead, you'll have to use other kinds of locators.

I'll concentrate on Chicago citation style (via Turabian, see note below) as it's quite popular at Iliff, but if you want another style, please just ask at [e-mail].

An example of a footnote for your Kindle book is:

9. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (Boston: Little, Brown, 2008), pt. 6, chap. 1, Kindle.

Notice how I've made note of the part and the chapter. Use whatever divisions your book has to get your reader as close the spot you are that you can! You might use chapter (chap.), part (pt.), book (bk.) or section (sec.) instead of page numbers. This holds true for all these styles.

If you are using this footnote or note-bibliography style, you'll use this form in the bibliography:

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Boston: Little, Brown, 2008. Kindle.

If, rather than footnotes or the notes-bibliography style, you are using parenthetical author-date style, use this in the text:

(Gladwell 2008, pt. 6 chap. 1)

In the bibliography, if you are using author-date:

Gladwell, Malcolm. 2008. Outliers: The Story of Success. Boston: Little, Brown. Kindle.

Notice that the information is the same; it's the order of parts that changes. That's true of most citation styles. What's important is that you give your reader all the pieces they need to find your reference and follow your train of scholarship.

Note: "Turabian" is a common shorthand reference to the following student guide to Chicago Style. This clearly written guide will answer all your questions about the most-used citation style at Iliff. Bring your questions of clarification to the Writing Lab:
Kate L. Turabian. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 8th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2013. ISBN: 9780226816388