Sitting high atop a perch with a view of the publishing landscape down below, book publishing company CEOs have a different perspective than the rest of us when it comes to what’s happening in digital books.

According to a recent survey, nearly half of readers discover new books through the recommendations of family and friends, and nearly a third discover them at bookstores.

E-reader and e-book seller Kobo was born international. The Toronto-based company had to expand abroad from the very beginning, as Canada isn’t a very large market, said Kobo vice president of content, sales and merchandising Michael Tamblyn at the Digital Book World conference in New York last week.