Ms Lees, 33, became a figure of public intrigue and intense media speculation after narrowly escaping the clutches of a man who murdered her boyfriend, on a deserted stretch of road in the Northern Territory in 2001.
Self-confessed drug runner Bradley John Murdoch was convicted last December of Mr Falconio's murder and of assaulting Ms Lees and depriving her of her liberty.
He was given a mandatory life sentence. His appeal against his conviction and sentence will be heard on December 12.
Ms Lees, who will promote her account of the tragedy in a book entitled No Turning Back in Australia, said it was often forgotten she was a victim too.
The book touches on her treatment by the public and the media following the murder of her boyfriend.
"Throughout the five years of the investigation and trial, sometimes I felt it would have been easier and less painful if I hadn't survived ... if I'd been the one that died," Ms Lees told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper.
"I don't want any pity or sympathy. I'm the lucky one after all.
"But it's often forgotten that I was the victim of a violent crime ... that I was that close to being raped and murdered," she said.
Enough Rope interview
In her first public interview since Murdoch's conviction, Ms Lees spoke with Andrew Denton, on Enough Rope on ABC television.
Ms Lees said she was in a "protected police bubble" in the days following her near-abduction and Falconio's murder at Barrow Creek.
Keeping her silence for ten days before holding a press conference, the backpacker said she was in shock, and put her complete trust in the NT police.
"During that time I was just focusing on finding Pete and the investigation," she said.
"I know now that there were journalists who were suspicious of me and they seemed to be intent on creating a mystery."
"That was a maybe five, ten minute press conference, but the rest of the 24 hours I screamed, I cried, I got angry, I got upset. Went through a whole array of emotions."
One of the officers handling her case would drive her out to waste grounds and canyons "where I could get out of the car and just scream", Ms Lees said.
"Many, many times I cried. Couldn't get to sleep, tormented myself, didn't know what to do for the best," she said.
Lees needed money: Denton
ABC presenter Andrew Denton says Joanne Lees is strapped for cash and needs the money she's made from her book and television interviews.
Further questions have been raised about the fact that Ms Lees has made a reported $A630,000 from her book deal and serialisation rights.
She's also made more than $A126,000 from a television interview.
But Denton says he's discussed that revenue and believes Lees needs the money.
He says her life has been totally interrupted by the murder and she couldn't earn a living.
Denton says Lees wrote the book specifically because she wanted to set the record straight, because there's so much innuendo and speculation, even though no-one's spoken to her.