Lisa Wilkinson has found a way to make serious cash from her new memoir, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, even after the book had its price slashed by major retailers.
The Sunday Project host, 62, is promoting her tell-all tome at a series of exclusive breakfasts for the women’s networking group Business Chicks.
A recent event held at the Melbourne Crown Palladium had a sold-out crowd of 500+ attendees, with tickets ranging from $145 to $185 per seat, according to The Australian.
Smart move: Lisa Wilkinson has found a way to make serious cash from her new memoir, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, even after the book had its price slashed by major retailers
Wilkinson is also charging attendees ‘the full $45 for the hardcover version’ of her book at the Business Chicks breakfasts – even though they could buy a paperback copy for as cheap as $6 at Kmart, or get the hardcover edition for $12 on Amazon.
During her book tour, Wilkinson has made scathing remarks about what she describes as ‘trashy’ magazines and news websites.
‘Every time we pick up one of those magazines in a doctor’s waiting room and every time we click on that salacious link to a trashy gossip website, not believing the ridiculous emotion-charged headline but clicking on that link nonetheless, a click means you like it, so it only brings more of it,’ she said.
‘In these faces women exist only to be ogled at, picked on, ridiculed, pitted against each other, laughed at or scorned. It’s designed to make us feel better if we are having a bad day, but it doesn’t, it makes us feels worse and it simply brings out the worst in human nature.
‘It’s part of a system to weaken and suppress women and we’ve been witnessing it for decades.’
She has also addressed criticism of her memoir – including allegations she omitted key details about her pay dispute with former employer Channel Nine.
Lucrative: The Sunday Project host, 62, is promoting her tell-all tome at a series of exclusive breakfasts for the women’s networking group Business Chicks. A recent event in Melbourne had a sold-out crowd of 500+ attendees, with tickets ranging from $145 to $185 per seat
It was previously reported she planned to use her book-signing tour as a way to get ‘payback’ on the press for fact-checking her book.
In her book, Wilkinson made a series of claims about her former Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic and how she left Nine over a reported gender pay gap dispute.
She claimed the pay disparity between her and Stefanovic when they hosted the breakfast show was once ‘so off the charts that no-one would have believed it’.
However, it was later reported that Wilkinson had actually earned more than Stefanovic for years at the start of their on-air partnership, and it wasn’t until Seven tried to poach Stefanovic that he was able to negotiate the bigger salary.
Wilkinson failed to mention this important detail in her memoir, instead focusing on the pay disparity during her later years at the helm of Today.
Sales tactic: Wilkinson is also charging attendees ‘the full $45 for the hardcover version’ of her book at the Business Chicks breakfasts – even though they could buy a paperback copy for as cheap as $6 at Kmart, or get the hardcover edition for $12 on Amazon
Earlier this month, Wilkinson’s book hit a road bump when prices were slashed to bargain bin levels at retailers Australia wide.
Her memoir was dramatically discounted at major stores, with more than 70 per cent off at some outlets.
Kmart has the paperback version on clearance for just $6, down from the recommended retail price of $24.
Meanwhile, Big W has a special online price for the hardback: it is down to just $12, which is 73 per cent off the RRP of $45.
Amazon has also dropped the price to $12, while Booktopia has the book for $36. Only Dymocks has stuck to the $45 RRP for the hardcover.
Awkward! Earlier this month, Lisa’s book hit a road bump when prices were slashed to bargain bin levels at retailers Australia wide. (Pictured: a paperback copy available for $6 at Kmart)