“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

– Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring

As a full-time computer consultant who is in no position to quit my day job, Gandalf’s words ring true. I must balance my time between things that pay the bills (i.e., my career), and things that do not (e.g., my new book, Balancer).

Since marketing can’t be a full-time task, I have to find ways to spread the word about my book without actually doing any legwork during the day. Luckily, I’ve discovered how to do just that. Here are five ways part-time novelists like me can lay the groundwork so that their books market themselves full time.

1. Invest in a Compelling Cover. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and they’re right. So make the most of your picture—your book’s cover! Think of the cover as a constantly running commercial for your book. It’s the first thing people see when they stumble on your story, so it needs to be memorable (and, ideally, tweetable, sharable, and pin-able). Take the time to test prospective cover(s) on your friends. And seriously consider paying for a professional cover design. 
2. Ride the Coattails of Giants. Pick and choose existing champions and ride with them into battle. How? By making sure you’ve created a presence on the major websites—like Amazon or GoodReads—that matter to your readers. Post comments, share what you’re currently reading, upload reviews, etc. Just get your name out there. Within an hour of beefing up my presence on Amazon, I was seeing Amazon links to the Kindle edition of my book, which also started coming up as Google’s first match when I searched my book’s title. This is how readers will find you.
3. Give It Away. It’s hard to build an audience from scratch, but I’m finding success with a GoodReads giveaway. Here’s how it works: Readers sign up for a chance at winning a free copy of your book; some of them then win one. That’s it. This simple promotion has resulted in over 700 people adding my book to their GoodReads “to-read” list in just two weeks. And my only expense is the 15 paperback copies I’ve agreed to give away during the promotion. (I could’ve offered five or 10 and probably had the same results.)
4. Be Search-Friendly. Google the title of your book and your name (or pseudonym). Check the spelling—is it easy to remember? Search your book’s title on Amazon. Is it unique? The title of my book, Balancer, is shared with only two other books. When it first went on sale, it appeared on the second page of search results (behind golf-ball balancers and mower-blade balancers). By the second week, it was on the first page; by the third week, my book usually came up first, second, or third. The lesson? Make your book easy to find.
5. Encourage Reviews. There was a time when people could pay for reviews, but fake reviews are frowned upon and could also result in account problems with Amazon. So spend time generating authentic reviews organically. Use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and other social-media platforms to reach out to readers and encourage them to leave meaningful feedback. Remember: Buzz eventually dies down, but reviews live on forever.

Patrick Wong is the author of Balancer, the first in his Final Deity series. A graduate of James Madison University, Wong lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two daughters. By day, he’s a software developer for major corporations and government agencies. By night, he’s an indie author.