Portfolio in hand, aspiring comic-book artist Sean Carlson waits patiently in line after a New York Comic Con panel in October on how to break into the business. He wants to ask a professional artist to critique his work. But an overly chatty artist in front of him prattles on way too long with a question.

A person without super-power patience — like me, for example — might have barged in. But Carlson waits and finally gets his chance. I cringe as he lays his pitch book on the table before Robert Atkins, an industry veteran who has worked on popular series like G.I. Joe, Amazing Spider-Man and Venom.

As any artist knows, asking a pro to review your work early in your career is one of those trying moments. You put yourself on the line. You bare your soul.

So I privately cheer as Carlson’s pages get a genuinely positive review from Atkins, along with a few “nitpicks” and an invite to meet again the next day for more. Yay!

Who knows if Carlson will ever make it big. But by approaching someone in the field for a review and staying polite during the process, he’s judiciously following three basic rules from the pros on how to break into this business. Have passion for the work. Improve your luck with networking. And don’t be a d***.

Explosive comic book sales growth

Carlson, from Long Island, N.Y., is fishing for a break in the right place. Comic-book superheroes have vaulted into the mainstream. They now play a huge role on the big screen and Netflix NFLX, +0.78% . So sales are explosive.

Comic-book revenue tripled since 1997 to top $1 billion last year, according to Comichron. And those numbers are obviously lowball since they exclude so much of the business.

Michael Brush

They overlook ticket sales at jammed Comic Cons around the country; autographed comic books that fans buy in “artist alleys” at shows ($25, cash only, please); photos with stars ($60-$120 a pop; sheesh, talk about exploiting your fan base); autographs from stars ($40, ditto); and sundry T-shirts and memorabilia.

In short, there is a lot of money sloshing around in this business. An aspiring artist like Carlson has a brass ring before him. Plus, he’s got lucky timing, given that internet forums and software make it so much easier to succeed these days.

“There are so many wonderful tools to create, and there are going to be so many more coming that I think the future is going to be wild,” says Angelo Sotira, co-founder of the online comic book artist and writer community DeviantArt. “With all these tools at hand, there is no excuse to not create something of meaning. The only thing that is going to hold people back is themselves.”

Well, that might be a little optimistic, but understandably so. (Sotira has a website to sell.) Breaking into comic books is still tough.

Michael Brush

But it will be easier if you follow my 10 rules on how to get into the business, culled from about a dozen panels and presentations at “The Con” in New York City earlier this month. Many of these rules apply to anyone pursuing any creative career.

Rule 1: Master your craft

While obvious, this one is worth mentioning because it’s the top tip from one of the top people in the business. That would be Joe Quesada, chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment (executive producer for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage), a division of Walt Disney DIS, +1.43% .

“It all comes down to mastering. It really does. You have to master your craft. And you cannot do that unless you do it. Writers have to write. Artists have to draw,” says Quesada.

“I don’t care if you are not inspired today,” he tells a packed room at the New York Comic Con. “Pick up a pencil and draw. Get behind a keyboard and write. Especially on the days you are not feeling it. That’s where it really happens. You have grind it out. If you want to be a professional, that is the only way.”

Rule 2: Have passion for the business

“If your entire reason to do this is because you want to sit at a table and sign autographs, you should stop right now,” says Jim Zub, who pens the popular comic book Wayward. “Because that is just frosting on the cake. The vast majority of the time you will be grinding it out in isolation. Making stories takes a long time.” But your passion and hard work will pay off, he says. When I visited him later at his convention floor table, he had little time to talk because he was too busy signing autographs.

Michael Brush

Passion will also help assure that you make something “awesome,” and that’s a key to success, says Jack Conte, the co-founder of Patreon, a popular crowd-funding site for comic-book artists and writers. “For the first two years, we didn’t have a sales team. We didn’t do marketing. The company just grew because we made something that people needed, and they told their friends about it,” Conte tells a crowd at one “how-to” session. “Successful things grow because they are awesome. Because they make your heart melt, or they make you excited.”

Rule 3: Stay positive and don’t get discouraged

“A lot of people get ‘the grass is greener’ syndrome in their heads,” cautions Zub. “They are constantly unhappy with their progress.” Not good. “That kind of dark seed that you put in yourself, that constant feeling that what you are doing is not worthy ... first of all, it will show in your work. And second, it will wear you down.”

Similarly, Quesada, at Marvel, cautions newbies to readily accept failure when it happens and move on quickly. “The most successful people on the planet have failed more than you or I have tried to do anything,” he says. Was there ever a dark time in his career when he wanted to leave the industry? “No. I never had any doubt about the fact that I was going to make it.”

Rule 4: Be lucky

OK, this is like saying “be tall.” Except it’s not. Because you can create your own luck. How? One way is networking. The more conversations you join, the more your name will come up when a gig is available. Just don’t be pushy. Industry veteran Charles Soule (Daredevil, Death of Wolverine) uses a hunting vs. fishing metaphor to explain how to avoid this mistake.

Michael Brush

“Hunting is when you do everything you can to talk to an editor. Don’t do that. It gets to the point where the editor does know your name, but not in a good way. He knows you as that psycho guy who is stalking him.” In contrast, fishing is getting to know editors and assistant editors but being “cool” about it. “You have all these contacts out in the world and they are lures, and when you feel a tug on them, you lure them in,” says Soule.

There is a practical reason why editors prefer cool people. “When you are working with a comics team, it is like you are all in the same hotel room for a year and the bathroom doesn’t work,” says Soule. “It’s terrible. But it’s also wonderful. If you are going to be in that situation you want to make sure it is with people you think are cool,” he says. “So be cool.”

It helps to post lots of work online at Facebook FB, +2.66% , Tumblr and other social-media sites. Atkins says he posted a new character drawing every day earlier in his career, and that helped create demand for his work.

Rule 5: Do social right

Joining online comic-book communities on Twitter TWTR, +7.09% , Reddit and Tumblr is a great way to advance your career. But do it right. A tweet saying “Hey man, check out my stuff” is not the way to go. “If your social-media presence is only you selling your books, you are not going to get a lot of engagement,” says Alex Segura, who wrote Archie Meets Kiss and Archie Meets Ramones.

Instead, be interesting and engaging. And support the work of others. “You want people to follow you and not feel like they are being sold to,” says Segura. “Limit shilling to 30% of your social-media presence.” Also key: Learn to separate trolling from intelligent critique, and how to ignore the former.

(See the next page for five more rules on how to break into comics.)

Rule 6: Know how to pitch your work

Have an elevator pitch. “Distill your pitch down to blank meets blank, even if it is reductive,” says Segura. Think Godfather vs. Aliens. Next, your pitch on paper should be short and sweet — one or two pages, max. Editors are extremely busy. “No one wants to read a 10-page email,” says Segura.

Instead of lobbing ideas via “contact us” website links, get to know what genres editors specialize in, and contact the right ones. Know the editor. Marvel editor Steve Wacker “was doing all the books that I liked,” says Zub. “So to pitch to him was natural. When I sent him my book, it spoke to him.”

Rule 7: Don’t be a d***

“Attitude is important,” says Michael Molcher, who does public relations for 2000 AD. “You have to be professional. Don’t be a d***.” Hustle. Show up on time. And do what you say you are going to do. “Reputation is vitally important. If you make a nuisance of yourself, people are going to view you in a negative light.”

Michael Brush

To wit, Molcher has a special folder for angry letters, mostly from people whose work was rejected who then wrote back “calling us all sorts of names.” “We remember those people who called us those names. There are one or two low-level creators who basically made sure they would never work for 2000 AD because they were very, very rude to us.”

Instead of getting angry, try to figure out if you pitched your work wrong, or whatever else you can learn from the rejection.

Rule 8: Go indie

You first job won’t be with Marvel or DC Comics. You may never want to work for them. Going indie means more control over charters, art and story lines. Plus owning your work can pay off in the long run, if it really takes off. The good news is there are lots of ways to get paid to publish online. “The industry is more accessible than you think,” says Zub.

Kickstarter — and Patreon for products with recurring installments like a series or a magazine — double as distribution platforms beyond crowd funding. Sites like CreateSpace and LINE Webtoon can help you monetize your product.

“It’s almost hard to fathom how different this industry was 10 years ago,” says Sotira at DeviantArt. “It was just an internet free-for-all. People were struggling and carrying portfolios. Now there are so many great mechanisms in place.”

Rule 9: Have a rich aunt

Putting your stuff online is virtually free. But you’ll need a budget to publish a hard-copy comic book. How much? Well, it will help to have a rich aunt. A quality comic book costs $5,000 to $8,000 to produce. Then you’ll have to partner with a company like Diamond Comic Distributors to get into shops to reach your fans.

Michael Brush

After Diamond’s take, and outlays for stuff like printing and advertising, you can expect to get about $1.40 out of the $3.99 cover price on comic books, says Andy Schmidt of Comics Experience, which offers courses. You have to sell a lot of copies to recoup the costs. But it’s not impossible. For context, a mid-level book from Marvel sells about 30,000-40,000 issues, says Schmidt. Keep in mind that sales naturally decline for each new installment of a series.

Rule 10: The story is key

A comic-book world debate ponders whether the art or the story drive success. Quesada, chief creative officer of Marvel, has no doubt. It’s the plot line, which is why he pushed Marvel to be more writer-centric. What sells books is when readers get to the last one in a series “and say they just have to get the next one,” says Quesada.

Bonus Rule 11: Be a white male?

I’d hate for this to be a real rule for success in comic books. But, sadly, it sure does seem like it might help. While the fan base at Comic Con was reasonably diverse, it was hard to miss that virtually all of the writers and artists at Con panels were white males. Several (female) audience members confronted publishers on this in a Q&A.

“We are very cognizant of what you are talking about,” responded Jim Lee, a co-publisher at DC Entertainment, the division of Time Warner US:TWX which puts out Vertigo, MAD Magazine and Batman books. “It has changed in the past five years pretty significantly and will continue to change even more dramatically,” he predicts.

Lee rests his hopes on his company’s talent-development program, which he says casts a net “far and wide” to be inclusive. The first group of writers in the program is “very, very diverse” by gender, sexual preference and country of origin, he says. “The mission is to introduce them to the world of comics, and then open the doors to make the connections. As this program gets fully up and running, you will start seeing the graduates get assignments.”

Here’s hoping they won’t need superpowers to break in.

At the time of publication, Michael Brush had no positions in any stocks mentioned in this column. Brush is a Manhattan-based financial writer who publishes the stock newsletter, Brush Up on Stocks. Brush has covered business for the New York Times and The Economist group, and he attended Columbia Business School in the Knight-Bagehot program.