- Eliza Randall
- 0 min read
Spines vs BookBaby: What Happens After You Submit
Table of Contents
Most authors don’t choose a self-publishing platform based on features. They choose it based on a fear they haven’t said out loud yet: that they’ll hand over a manuscript, the raw material of everything they’ve built, and lose visibility into what happens to it next.
Compared to querying traditional publishers for months with no guarantee of a yes, the appeal of a self published author route is obvious. The harder question is which platform in the publishing world actually deserves your manuscript and your money.
That fear is the real comparison point between Spines and BookBaby.
Not which one has more line items on a pricing page. Whether you’ll know what’s happening to your book while it’s happening, whether the timeline will kill your momentum before launch day, and whether the services you assumed were included are quietly billed as extras once you’re already committed to the entire publishing process.
Both platforms distribute to major retailers, and both have been reviewed thousands of times by authors who came out the other side with a finished book. Neither one hands you a flat, simple royalty number, though. Spines pays 70% net royalties across the board.
BookBaby’s royalty rate depends on where the book sells: authors earn 50% on print sold through BookBaby’s own Bookshop, and a higher eBook percentage that varies by retailer. The differences that matter most, though, live underneath the royalty math entirely.
Key Differences
- Production Speed: Both BookBay and Spines offer fast production timelines for the publishing industry. Spines 30 days or less and BookBaby’s production timeline is around 8 weeks.
- Technology: Spines leverages advanced technology for formatting and production, offering a modern and efficient publishing process.
- Included Services: Spines’ base packages include essential services like editing, copyright protection, and cover design, whereas BookBaby offers many of these services at an additional cost.
- Formats: Both Spines and BookBaby support multiple formats, with Spines also providing audiobook options.
- Transparency: Spines offers an easy-to-use dashboard to follow every step of the process, while BookBaby’s process may not be as transparent.
| FEATURE |  |  |
| ⭐ Customer Experience | 4.6 stars | 4.5 stars |
| 💰Royalties | 100% | 100% |
| ⏳Production Speed | Less than 30 days | 8 weeks |
| 🏢 Marketing Services | Comprehensive Services | Ads for Authors Program |
| 🌎 Distribution | Global Distribution on countless channels | 60+ channels |
| 🧑💻 Support | Personal Production Manager | Publishing Specialists |
| 📚Formats | All Formats Generated by High-Quality AI | All Formats (except Audiobooks) |
| 💎 Transparency | Innovative Platform (easy to follow, all accessible) | Lacks Transparency |
Overview of Spines
Founded in 2022, Spines aims to revolutionize the self-publishing industry with its AI-powered platform, providing authors with a seamless publishing experience. By blending advanced technology with human expertise, Spines offers an efficient solution to combat traditional publishing challenges.
Spines offers a comprehensive range of services, including manuscript preparation, editing, book design, formatting, distribution, and marketing. The innovative platform also provides full transparency, allowing authors to track their progress and make informed decisions throughout the publishing journey and providing all necessary services on a single, user-friendly platform.
Pricing for Spines start at $1,498 for the Essential package, this subscription offers authors a comprehensive entry point to all necessary publishing tools and services, providing a cost-effective solution for those looking to self-publish their books..
Despite entering the market not too long ago, Spines has quickly distinguished itself with a 4.6-star rating on Trustpilot, demonstrating that authors appreciate its modern solution to the outdated publishing world. Publishing an average of 5 books per day, Spines has become one of the leading publishers in the industry.
Spines – Key Features
One of the main differences is that Spines is a publishing platform, with a transparent and user-friendly dashboard that allows authors to easily track and manage their book’s production. With tailored plans that include essential services like editing, copyright protection, and ISBN assignment, Spines makes self-publishing more accessible and affordable for authors.
- User-Friendly Dashboard
- Advanced AI Technology
- Proofreading & Editing
- 100% Royalties
- Cover Design
- Global Distribution
- Marketing
- All Formats Generated (POD, eBooks, Audiobooks)
- Copyright Protection
- Dedicated Support
Does Not Offer
- The platform is not yet fully intuitive
Overview of BookBaby
Founded in 2011, BookBaby has established itself as a leading self-publishing platform, dedicated to providing authors with the tools and support needed to publish and distribute their work independently. The mission of BookBaby is to empower writers by offering comprehensive, high-quality publishing services.
BookBaby offers various services, including manuscript preparation, professional editing, book design, formatting, in-house printing, and distribution and marketing options. They are designed to be a one-stop for authors, ensuring that every step of the publishing process is covered.
BookBaby’s modular pricing model lets authors customize their publishing services, starting with a choice between print, eBook, or combined formats. Additional options include professional cover design, formatting, global distribution, and marketing services, with costs varying based on the services selected.
BookBaby has garnered a high Trustpilot rating of 4.5 stars, reflecting the positive experiences and satisfaction of numerous authors who have used their self-publishing services.
BookBaby – Key Features
BookBaby focuses on providing a full suite of professional publishing services as well as in-house printing, and distribution. Marketing services are available in higher-tier packages, alongside metadata optimization.
- Editing Services
- In-House Printing
- Marketing Services
- 100% Royalties
- Design Services
- Dedicated Support
- Distribution to 60+ companies
Does Not Offer
- Copyright Protection
The Bundling Problem Nobody Warns You About
Here’s what trips up a lot of first-time authors: self-publishing packages look comparable on the surface until you find out what’s actually inside them.
BookBaby uses a modular pricing model. You choose your core format, print or ebook or both, and then add services individually: cover design, interior formatting, distribution, metadata optimization, an ISBN.
Each add-on has its own price tag, and the total cost climbs with every box you check. This gives you control, and it suits an author who doesn’t mind paying for advanced options piece by piece, but it also means the number you see at the start of the publishing process is rarely the number you pay at the end.
A writer who didn’t budget for professional editing or metadata optimization can watch their total climb well past what they expected, service by service, right up until launch.
Spines takes the opposite approach. Across its Signature, Paramount, and Horizon packages, copyright protection, AI-assisted editing and formatting, cover design, distribution, and audiobook production are built into the base price rather than sold as additional services.
Higher tiers add proofreading support and translation services as included features that are paid add-ons at the entry tier, and there’s a separate line of packages built specifically for children’s books.
This matters most for the writer who doesn’t yet know which services they need. If you’ve never published before, you don’t know to ask about copyright protection until someone else has already infringed on your work. A bundled package protects you from not knowing what to ask for.
Neither approach is wrong. Modular pricing rewards someone who already knows exactly what they want and wants to pay only for that. Bundled pricing protects someone who is still learning what “exactly what they want” even means.
Most first-time authors are the second person, even when they think they’re the first.
Comparing Pricing & Affordability
When choosing a self-publishing platform, understanding the pricing and value offered by each service is crucial.
Spines Pricing
Pricing at Spines starts at $1498 for a 75,000 word book with the Essential Package. For more information visit Spines Pricing page on their webiste.
BookBaby Pricing
BookBaby’s pricing is modular, enabling authors to tailor their publishing services according to their specific needs. This pricing structure is designed to give authors control over the cost by allowing them to choose only the services they need, making BookBaby a versatile option for a wide range of publishing projects:
- Core Publishing Options: Authors start by selecting their fundamental service, choosing from Printed Books, eBooks, or a combination of both, which includes Print On Demand (POD).
- Book Format and Customization: Authors can specify their book’s trim size, page count, quantity, and choose between various paper stocks and bindings, including options for glossy or matte finishes.
- Additional Services: These include global distribution to retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, professional cover design services starting at $599, interior formatting, and the purchase of an ISBN for $49. Marketing services are also available, such as Metadata Optimization for $149 and a Book Promotion Bundle for $399, which offers promotional placements and social media marketing.
Pricing at BookBaby depends on your choices. For example, for a 50,000-word manuscript (approximately 252 pages), including professional cover design, formatting, basic distribution with POD, metadata optimization, and an ISBN, the estimated total cost would be around $2,515. For more information on BookBaby’s pricing, visit thier page on pricing.
Evaluating Packages
BookBaby’s modular pricing allows authors to customize their publishing services by selecting specific options they need, which can include everything from printing in various formats to global distribution and professional marketing services.
The cost for a typical project, such as a 50,000-word manuscript with professional cover design, formatting, and basic distribution, starts around $2,515, with additional costs for services like marketing and ISBN purchase.
Spines, on the other hand, offers structured packages tailored to various author needs. Their Essential Production plan, at a one-time fee of $1,498, includes AI-powered grammar checks, Amazon-only distribution, and other basic publishing tools.
Their more comprehensive packages, like the Signature and Paramount plans, provide broader distribution, additional creative services, and features like translation and audiobook production, with prices ranging up to $4,498.
Both platforms provide extensive services, but Spines’ structured packages offer a clear upfront cost, while BookBaby allows for more customization that can potentially lead to higher costs depending on the services selected.
This makes Spines a potentially more budget-friendly option for authors looking for package deals, whereas BookBaby is suitable for those who may need a more tailored approach with specific services.
Royalties
Both Spines and BookBaby offer 100% royalties.
Spines
Authors receive 100% of the net sales royalties from their book sales through Spines. No specific fees, but royalties are calculated after applicable taxes.
- Easily track your royalties on an intuitive dashboard that also provides insights into your book’s performance and sales sources.
- Authors start earning royalties once their total sales exceed $25.
- Flexible payouts – weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
- Spines makes it easy to withdraw all royalties directly to the author’s bank account or PayPal account.
BookBaby
Authors retain 100% of the net earnings from their book sales, minus any applicable distribution fees.
- Flexible payouts – allow authors to withdraw their royalties at any time.
- No minimum threshold.
- BookBaby takes a small distribution fee if the book sells on their website.
Keep in mind that channels like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others charge fees regardless of your publishing platform.
Formats: Included vs. Priced Separately
Most feature comparisons between self-publishing platforms are close enough to come down to preference. Audiobooks are a good example of why the framing matters more than the checklist. Both platforms produce them, but the cost structure is different.
Spines builds audiobook production into its package price at every tier, Signature included. BookBaby offers audiobook creation too, but as a separate paid service on top of the publishing package, starting around $500 plus a per-word rate if you’re narrating it yourself, or a flat fee if you already have a finished audio file and just want it distributed through their store.
Neither number is wrong on its own. What matters is that a writer comparing the two platforms by feature list alone would see “audiobooks: yes” on both and miss that one of them bills for it separately.
If audio is part of your plan from day one, ask for the total cost including that service before you commit, not after.
Waiting Is Not Neutral
Timeline gets treated like a footnote in most comparisons, a number to skim past. It shouldn’t be. Spines typically moves from manuscript to publication in under 30 days.
BookBaby’s process generally runs closer to eight weeks, and customer reviews suggest it can stretch longer depending on the complexity of the project.
The difference isn’t just five weeks. It’s what those five weeks do to a writer psychologically. Finishing a manuscript produces a specific kind of energy: the urge to tell people, to announce a launch date, to start building an audience.
That energy has a half-life. Wait too long between finishing and publishing, and the excitement that would have powered your launch marketing quietly drains away, replaced by a low hum of anxiety about whether the book will land at all.
A faster production timeline isn’t a convenience feature. It’s a way of protecting the emotional state you’re in right after you finish something you’re proud of, so that state is still intact when it’s time to actually sell the book.
Watching the Process vs. Waiting for an Update
This is where the two platforms diverge most sharply, and it’s the part most comparison articles reduce to a single adjective like “transparent.”
Spines runs on a dashboard that lets you track your book’s production in real time: where it is in editing, formatting, cover design, and distribution, at any point, without needing to email anyone.
BookBaby assigns a publishing specialist, but the day-to-day visibility into where your project actually stands is less consistent, and several authors have described the process as harder to follow than expected.
If you’ve ever sent a manuscript to an editor and then spent three weeks wondering whether it arrived, you already understand why this matters more than it sounds like it should. Submitting your book into a process you can’t see is its own kind of anxiety, separate from anything about the book’s quality.
A dashboard doesn’t just save you an email. It removes an entire category of worry that has nothing to do with your writing and everything to do with not knowing.
Marketing Services
Spines offers a comprehensive marketing toolkit, including book marketing courses, and a personal author platform that is designed to generate sales and boost your book’s engagement.
Authors can customize their marketing investments to suit their budgets and track sales performance through the user-friendly dashboard, ensuring effective promotion and engagement with readers. Authors also can create ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google Ads with the click of a button.
BookBaby offers targeted marketing services through its “Ads for Authors Program,” which creates and manages ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Marketing is available in higher-tier packages. BookBaby’s comprehensive approach helps authors reach a wide audience, though the costs can quickly add up.
Print-On-Demand
Spines also offers convenient Print-on-Demand services, allowing you to order directly through your account. You can select the number of copies you want, and they will be delivered straight to your doorstep, making the process seamless and efficient.
With BookBaby, each self-publishing package includes 25 softcover books and offers comprehensive Print-on-Demand services. They pride themselves on a quick production timeline, but ordering a large quantity of books can become costly.
Getting Read After You’ve Been Published
Publishing a book and having anyone read it are two different problems, and a lot of authors don’t realize the second one exists until they’re staring at zero sales a month after launch.
Spines includes marketing services inside its packages: author platform support, and the ability to launch ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google directly from the dashboard. BookBaby’s marketing lives mostly in its “Ads for Authors” program, which is generally reserved for higher-tier packages, meaning the writer with the smallest budget often has the least access to the tool that would help them the most.
This is worth sitting with. The authors most likely to need marketing help around their book launch are the ones who can least afford to pay for it as a premium add-on. A platform that includes design services and marketing services by default is making a bet that discoverability shouldn’t be a luxury tier.
Customer Reviews
Both Spines and BookBaby have received high ratings on Trustpilot, with BookBaby at 4.5 and Spines at 4.6, demonstrating a high level of customer satisfaction.
At Spines authors appreciate the transparent, user-friendly dashboard and affordable pricing. Spines is favored for its swift, streamlined approach, making it ideal for both new and experienced authors.
Authors value BookBaby’s comprehensive services and easy navigation from manuscript submission to distribution.
What Actually Lands in Your Hands
A comparison of self-publishing platforms tends to skip the part that matters most once the contract is signed: what the physical book actually looks like when it arrives.
Trim size, paper type, and page count all affect print quality, and they’re worth asking about before you commit rather than after your print copies show up looking nothing like the beautiful book you pictured.
BookBaby’s Express package includes 25 softcover books and ebook conversion as a starting point, with hardcover, cover design, and interior formatting available as additional services on top.
Spines builds print books, ebooks, and audiobooks into its packages depending on tier, with a cover designer refining an AI-generated concept rather than starting from a blank page.
Neither platform functions like a vanity press charging you to print a stack of paperback copies nobody asked for. Both are built around print on demand, so books get produced as they sell rather than sitting in a garage.
Once your file is ready, ebook distribution and print distribution both run through the same dashboard or account: your book’s page on Amazon, Apple Books, and other major retailers gets built automatically, rather than requiring you to set up a separate Amazon page or Barnes & Noble listing by hand.
A self published author using Kindle Direct Publishing on their own would need to manage each retailer’s ebook distribution and formatting requirements individually. Spines and BookBaby both exist to spare you that, which is part of what you’re paying for when you choose a full-service platform over direct publishing.
Which One Actually Fits You
If you already know precisely which services you want and nothing else, BookBaby’s modular structure lets you build exactly that, without paying for anything extra.
If you’re comfortable managing multiple vendors and timelines, willing to pay upfront for more advanced options one at a time, and speed to publication isn’t your top priority, that flexibility can work in your favor.
If you’re publishing for the first time, don’t yet know which services matter, want to see your book’s status without sending an email to find out, and don’t want a five-to-eight-week wait sitting between you and your launch, Spines is built around exactly that kind of author.
The bundled package and the dashboard both exist to remove decisions you don’t yet have the experience to make well, and to keep you visible into a process that too many platforms treat as none of your business until it’s done.
Just weigh that convenience against the upfront cost and the 70% royalty split on your book sales, since a writer planning to sell in high volume over many years may do better financially with a leaner, self-managed setup even if it asks more of them up front.
The right platform is the one that matches how much you already know versus how much you’re trusting someone else to know for you. Most first-time authors are trusting more than they realize.
When authors compare Spines and BookBaby side by side, or read through Spines reviews on Trustpilot before deciding, what they’re really trying to answer isn’t which platform is objectively better. It’s which one is built for someone who knows as much as they currently know.