Haiku for eReaders?

[nhyde]

Hi all,

Please forgive me if I have posted this in the wrong place. I wasn't exactly sure where to post my question.

The ever-thoughtful Santa brought me a NookColor for Christmas and I'd love to have some haiku that I read around the web on it. So, is there already (or plans for) some of the online haiku mags, haiku poets, haiku press (ie: Red Moon) available in this format? Any individual haiku poets offering such a thing?

*crossing fingers*

Thanks!

[AlanSummers]

Well since you are here... <grin>

Your NookColor reader: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nookcolor/support/index.asp

I'm not familiar with this, does it take scribd, ebooks in general etc...?

Did you check out Resources, and click onto the Digital Library on the home page?

THF homepage: http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/

Alan

[nhyde]

Hiya Alan!

It will take most of the ebook formats (except Kindle), I believe. The haiku offerings at Barnes & Noble for the Nook are miserly, so I'm looking for ebooks out of the B&N loop, I guess.

I would think that at some point, Haiku press' and individual poets might use this technology as a low cost way of getting their books to the public...what I don't know, is how many are doing it now.  :)

I didn't know about the Digital Library, so I'll start there. Many thanks!

[nhyde]

The Digital Library is great! I'll certainly read through those when I'm on my computer. Now I need all that and more in EPUB format and downloadable for the NookColor. Hey, I'm happy to pay for the ebooks!

I found Smashwords that has independent haiku ebooks: http://www.smashwords.com/books/search/haiku/

[AlanSummers]

A lot of haiku writers are using ebooks as an additional format, just check amazon etc...

A lot of people pretending to write haiku also do this, so try the read inside format that amazon and others do for the print books before you commit yourself. ;-)

Alan

[Don Baird]

Hey Alan,

You are so right about that.  There is going to be so many untrained folks posting "haiku" books ... they're going to be all over the net.  The neat thing about it is that there will also be many attracted to the art form that are training and trying to learn to do it right.  I guess we have to remain in "buyer beware" mode when thinking about buying a new book off the internet. 

We should make a publication team of some sort ... and take the strength of the folks we have here and really write one hello of a book! or series.  The talent here is world class... we should take advantage of that ... for everyone.

just pondering out loud....

Don

[John McManus]

I like your pondering Don. You certainly raise a very good point.

As far as buying haiku books I personally don't but any haiku books without having seen a decent review of it in a reputable blog, webzine or journal.

[cat]

I agree, John.

And I go even further:  If I haven't loved a poet's haiku in the journals, I don't even think about buying his/her book. 

cat

[AlanSummers]

We should definitely put out more quality ebooks on haiku, that's a fact. ;-)

More and more people are jumping on the haiku bandwagon because they know haiku sells.  One book had Basho and haiku in the title and had neither, even abe books wouldn't correct the description when myself, and another haiku poet mentioned this.  Oh well. ;-)

Alan

[nhyde]

Alan, my ereader won't read Amazon ebooks, so that's out.

As to "pretend haiku" -- not sure what that means and "untrained" isn't always a bad thing. Personally, I'm not dogmatic (about anything really). I love contemporary short poetry, modern haiku, experimental short poems....something interesting, something tiny. So I hope writers like Jim Kacian, Scott Metz, Chris Liebow, Joseph Massey, Rae Armantrout, Jack Galmitz, Fay Aoyagi (curtsies to her highness), and many other writers here will eventually put out an ebook in EPUB format.

A girl can dream.  :)

[AlanSummers]

Shame about amazon books but there's a lot out there.  Lulu.com now have a lot of quality books on haiku and tanka etc...

What I mean, mostly, about pretend haiku, is badly written doggerel being labelled as haiku just to shift a few more copies.

The danger of reading bad, or faux, haiku is that it will hold up a newcomer learning about good published literature in the areas of haiku and other haikai literature, and tanka.

Good poets need to read other good poets, and the same goes to newcomers.  I was lucky that my local Queensland branch library had two copies of the Haiku Handbook.  Nowadays there is so much lazy doggerel I could have easily wasted my money and time by a couple of years or so before I recognised what books and haiku poets to read.

The hundreds of haiku students and teachers I meet in my workshops and courses shows me that they often have a penchant to buy inferior books that just aren't haiku.

That's why in my early years I went through a few thousand weblinks checking the quality, and also hunting for good sites.  Then it was difficult (early 1990s) but now it's easier to find quality magazines and blogs etc...

So I mean just very bad jokey doggerel that might seem funny for a few seconds, but would you buy a book that costs anything between $10-30 and read that book until it almost falls apart? ;-)

The good thing about eBooks is they can't fall apart, but they can get lost, or a new computer won't open the old software even.  eBooks still cost money so I would be loathe to risk my hard-earned money anyway. ;-)

Alan

[nhyde]

Ah, yes. I understand what you mean now. Hey, that's why I asked my question here! If you want gold, go to the gold mine.  :)

Ebooks should not cost anywhere near a real book prices, in my opinion. And despite wanting to load my NookColor with excellent short poetry, I'll always be a buyer of real books too. I love them too much to ever give them up fully.

[AlanSummers]

And it's great to receive challenging questions! 

No one should be afraid of asking a simple question, and feeling foolish.

The more we discuss, the more clarity we ALL receive.  I'm learning lots on this site, and I've been studying for 20 years in all the good places! ;-)

Alan

[nhyde]

Trust me, I'm an expert at appearing foolish. LOL