A Book Platform But Not For Thee!

What it means when Goodreads deletes your author account over a country name?

I joined Goodreads over a decade ago. For me, it’s always been a book platform—a place for authors and readers. Over the years, even though some writers and readers told me they didn’t care much about it, I stayed. Then, in 2023, I became a Goodreads Author.

How exciting! Until I received an email this week:

“Your Goodreads account has been deleted as part of a compliance review. If you believe this action has been made in error, please contact us within 14 days…”

At first, I thought the email was spam. I checked my account—it was gone. I couldn’t even log in anymore. Thankfully, through my day job, I’ve had enough training to check the legitimacy of such emails. This wasn’t spam, so I responded to the email and simply said their action was made in error.

This is how they replied:

“Thank you for contacting Amazon Compliance. Amazon complies with sanctions and export control regulations. After reviewing your account, we found similarities between information in your account and a country with which we cannot currently do business.”

A country?

Which country? The country of my birth—Iran—listed on my profile?

The country that’s the setting of my novel?

The answer is obvious: Iran.

It’s ironic. Goodreads is supposed to be a place for books and writers. My novel Zulaikha is set in Iran. It mirrors the life of an ordinary woman navigating two periods of tyranny.

At a time like this, a novel like Zulaikha should spark curiosity. I get a sanction.

My publisher has been supportive, and so has the Writers' Union of Canada, which has also taken action.

So, I’m fighting this issue, but I can’t help it. I feel stupid. But if not all, most fights are stupid, aren’t they?

Well, they might return my account since I have provided enough proof that I am also a Canadian. This makes me sad—very, very sad, not just for myself but for all the writers/ poets who live in a “country” they don’t want on their platforms. Does this mean Goodreads will become a platform only for writers from a compliant “country”? What about their stories, their literature?

Isn’t this alarming? What are we going to do about it?

You might choose to feel at ease, thinking it won’t happen to you. Maybe it won’t. But allow me to interrupt that comfort for a brief moment: this so-called book platform is paralyzed. It operates on selective thresholds—compliance filters that quietly exclude writers from certain countries. Day by day, it distances us from world literature. From the stories we need most.