I'd say it's easy to start spending and keep spending the bucks if you're aiming to duplicate a conventional print run from a large press, with no expense spared, but it isn't necessary.
Sites like Canva will take care of cover art, and print on demand presses like Blurb let you start with a very reasonably priced short run and will hook you up with a variety of distribution networks.
You can quite literally publish a professionally packaged book for a few hundred dollars or less.
There's also Amazon, but I've never tried it so can't comment on it.
I'd say it's easy to start spending and keep spending the bucks if you're aiming to duplicate a conventional print run from a large press, with no expense spared, but it isn't necessary.
Sites like Canva will take care of cover art, and print on demand presses like Blurb let you start with a very reasonably priced short run and will hook you up with a variety of distribution networks.
You can quite literally publish a professionally packaged book for a few hundred dollars or less.
There's also Amazon, but I've never tried it so can't comment on it.