The ChooseBooks.com marketplace for books announced to users it would cease operations this month. Cofounder Michael Tokman explained that he could not find partners or investors to make the needed investment to bring ChooseBooks to a level of long-term sustainability. He said the need for expanded infrastructure and more staff and a "a last-minute change resulting in our having to vacate our current office space" contributed to the decision to close.

Michael Tokman, along with Kate Lindemann and Poney Carpenter, founded the site with the idea of bringing back some of the user-friendly methods found on Bibliofind, a site acquired by Amazon, which subsequently closed Bibliofind.

Tokman said, "The only thing that would make it worthwhile to keep the site open at this point would be finding a business partner with enough financial capital to address all the various issues we face."

"A lot of startup marketplaces figure, if you build it they will come," said Edith Reynolds, editor of The Bookologist newsletter for online booksellers (published by AuctionBytes). "Getting booksellers to sign up is easy, offer them a discount or a trial. But booksellers will only respect a service that delivers orders. If you have one order coming in a week from a site, you will fill that order last. You won't risk your fulfillment rate on Amazon or Alibris for a site that doesn't produce real income."

ChooseBooks said the site will go completely offline on October 22.