You've wasted your money, sorry. The SpyderCheckr and the equivalent X-Rite device, the "Colorchecker Passport", are complete crocks of sh*t.
Use it to rest your coffee cup on, that's all it's useful for.
No, I think you've slightly misunderstood. Yes it creates a profile for your photos, but you still have to do your white balance in the usual way.
https://www.damiensymonds.net/white-balance-sheet
Hi @Graphical,
Let's rule out the obvious stuff first. Have you tried running the calibrator on another computer (either Mac or PC, doesn't matter) to make sure it works there?
Of course you don't crop during editing (with photobooks OR regular prints). Edit the whole photo at its full size as usual, then only resize and sharpen when you're ready for the book.
As long as the focus was perfect, and you don't need to crop them for composition, you'll be fine.
But you'll need to be utterly ruthless when culling for focus. If it's remotely soft, it's gone.
Now's the time to take the Bridge Class.