Starting today the King County Library System, the largest e-book lender in the country, will no longer buy new electronic releases from Macmillan Publishers.

The decision comes after Macmillan announced libraries would have to repurchase new e-books every two months, instead of every two years.

Library executive director Lisa G. Rosenblum said Macmillan’s new policy would mean the library could afford far fewer e-books and people might have to wait years to read a copy.

"For us to have one copy of a title for two months,” Rosenblum said, “our holds would stack up to the point we'd have thousands of holds for one copy of a book."

Macmillan said libraries are "cannibalizing” e-book sales but Rosenblum said the publisher hasn't provided the data to back that up.

"We typically will pay four or five times more for one copy of an e-book than you, the consumer,” Rosenblum said.