How We Quote a Textbook Printing Order for Nigeria: A Real RFQ Breakdown
2026-10-02 Β· By Xuan, Senior Project Coordinator
A publisher in Nigeria recently asked us to quote an educational textbook: 135 x 215 mm, around 350 pages, black-and-white interior on 70 gsm woodfree paper, a full-color gloss-laminated cover, sewn perfect binding, in quantities from 1,000 to 10,000 copies, delivered door-to-door. We are preparing that quotation right now. This article walks through the request exactly as our project team read it — what was specified well, what we had to confirm before pricing, and why each detail changes the number. The customer's identity is removed; everything else is real.
The Specifications We Received
The inquiry arrived through our website and listed the following:
- Finished size: 135 x 215 mm
- Interior: black-and-white printing on 70 gsm woodfree (Maplitho) paper
- Cover: 300 gsm art paper, full-color CMYK, gloss lamination
- Binding: sewn perfect binding — folded signatures sewn together first, then adhesive-bound into the cover
- Quantities: prices for 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 copies
- Delivery: door-to-door to Nigeria, with freight, customs and final delivery included in one total
This is what a good RFQ looks like. Size, page count, paper, colors, binding and quantity are all there, which means we can price production immediately instead of spending a week on clarification emails. If you are preparing your own request, our print-ready file checklist covers the artwork side of the same preparation.
Why Sewn Perfect Binding Suits Student Books
The customer specified sewn perfect binding themselves, and for a school textbook it is the right call. A textbook is not read once: it is opened flat on a desk every day, stuffed into bags, lent between siblings, and expected to survive a school year or more. In standard perfect binding the pages are held only by adhesive at the spine, and a book that is opened flat hundreds of times will eventually shed pages. In sewn perfect binding, each folded signature is sewn to the next before the adhesive is applied, so the pages are mechanically locked together even if the glue line flexes.
Sewing adds a step and therefore a cost per copy, so we do not recommend it for every book — a novel read twice does not need it. For textbooks, workbooks and reference titles we recommend it almost every time. The full comparison is in our guide to sewn vs. perfect binding.
Two Details We Confirmed Before Pricing
Even a well-written RFQ usually contains one or two points that need confirmation. This one had two, and both would have changed the price had we guessed instead of asking.
1. The page count. The subject line said 344 pages; the message body said 352 pages plus cover. Eight pages sounds trivial, but offset books print in folded signatures of 16 pages, so 344 and 352 are genuinely different jobs: different signature plans, different paper consumption, different spine widths, and different carton weights for shipping. We asked which figure is final before calculating anything. (If your own page count is flexible, a multiple of 16 uses paper most efficiently.)
2. The delivery address. The customer asked for a complete door-to-door price, but their email still contained the placeholder text "[INSERT YOUR FULL NIGERIAN DELIVERY ADDRESS]" where the address should have been. Door-to-door cost is not one number: ocean freight reaches the port of Lagos, and from there customs clearance and inland haulage vary significantly by city and state, and between residential and commercial addresses. A quote to Lagos Island and a quote to Kano are different quotations. We replied asking for the full address — city, state, postal code, contact person and phone — before finalizing the landed cost.
What Goes Into the Quotation
Once those two points are confirmed, the complete quotation covers five parts:
- Production cost at each quantity tier. Unit price falls as quantity rises, because plate-making, file setup and press make-ready are fixed costs spread across the run. The drop is steepest between 1,000 and 3,000 copies; beyond 5,000 the curve flattens. This is also why the offset-vs-digital decision depends on quantity — see offset vs. digital printing.
- Physical sample. We produce a sample with the actual paper, binding and lamination before bulk production. The sample fee is refunded when the bulk order is placed, so the sample costs the customer nothing if the project goes ahead.
- Production timeline. Around 14 days for bulk production after the proof is approved, for a job of this size.
- Freight. Sea freight from South China to Lagos/Apapa typically takes four to six weeks, and congestion at Apapa can add buffer time — the route-by-route picture is in our China-to-Africa shipping guide.
- Door-to-door delivery. Clearance and inland delivery priced against the confirmed address, so the landed total has no surprises.
Nigeria is one of the markets we know best — we produce textbooks and Bibles for Nigerian customers regularly — so these figures come from repeated shipments, not from a rate calculator.
What to Include in Your Own RFQ
If you want a fast, accurate quotation from any book printer — us or someone else — include these in your first message:
- Finished size, page count, and whether the count is final
- Interior paper and ink (e.g. 70 gsm woodfree, 1/0 black)
- Cover paper, colors and lamination
- Binding method — or the use case, so the printer can recommend one
- Two or three quantity tiers, not one number
- The full delivery address if you want a door-to-door price
- Whether you need a physical sample before bulk production
A complete RFQ gets a quotation in days. An incomplete one gets questions — which is fine too, but slower. Ready when you are: send us your specifications and our project team will reply with a full breakdown, or see our education book printing page for typical textbook specifications first.
