WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – If author Tina Folsom let big publishing stand in her way, she never would have become a millionaire.

In 2010, after more than 30 literary agents and publishers rejected “Samson’s Lovely Mortal,” the first in her series about lusty vampires, the San Francisco romance writer decided to self-publish her book on Amazon.com.

Today, Folsom, 46, has made it e-big. She has generated at least $33,000 a month since December 2010 selling her full-length books, novellas and short stories online. In November 2011, when Folsom released “Zane’s Redemption,” the fifth installment in her vampire series, the book cracked the Top 10 for romance novels on iTunes and Barnesandnoble.com and was ranked No. 135 overall on Amazon.