Publishing-Online or "Dead Tree" Format?

aliastnb asks "I'm currently about halfway through writing my first novel. After the release of books to the net by such people as Stephen King, I'm wondering if it might be worth my while to cut out the middleman, ie the publisher and release the book online. Trouble is, I'd like to be able to get some sort of reward for my efforts, ie minimise the amount of unpaid-for copies made of the book, and release it to a multi-platform environment - not just Windows software but Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc. Are these goals mutually exclusive and should I therefore approach a conventional publisher, or is there a way for me to satisfy them all?" When it comes to publishing, why limit yourself? There is a "writer's rule" that I've heard from both Emmett and Roblimo recently that "Anything worth selling once is worth selling three times." -- along that vein, why not offer your work in both formats and find out which way is better for you?