Despite $550,000 Payoff, Arnell Fails to Write Book, Must Pay Publisher $100,000

Peter Arnell has been ordered to return $100,000 of a $550,000 advance for a book on “personal branding” that he failed to deliver to HarperCollins. (Read the ruling below.)

Arnell failed to deliver the book despite having the assistance of two ghostwriters, a personal assistant, his wife and an editor at HarperCollins. He only turned in 25,000 words of a promised 80,000 manuscript — and HarperCollins sued to get its money back.

It is difficult to know where to start with this. Arnell is currently a toxic asset in branding world, having nearly ruined Tropicana, humiliated Pepsi, and brought ridicule to General Motors.

To give HarperCollins the benefit of the doubt, its contract with Arnell goes back to 2005, before everything that Arnell touched turned to dirt. (Rob Frankel calls him “the Bernie Madoff of brands.”)

The book was supposed to teach people “How to rebrand themselves to become their own greatest asset in both their professional and personal life.” Arnell hired two ghostwriters but fired the first in August 2005 and the second in February 2006. “Both were fired because their work was not satisfactory to him or his editor at HarperCollins,” the judge’s ruling states.

Arnell eventually scraped together 35,000 words but the publisher told him in an email:

“at only 35,000 words” it was “not worth peter’s reputation or ours or $500,000″

That’s right: despite being offered more than half a million dollars for a written version of his own bullshit, Arnell still managed to screw up.

Bizarrely, he expected his publisher to supply the missing 45,000 words. The judge said Arnell believed that 25,000 words:

was “suitable” because, with editorial assistance it could have been expanded to 80,000 words.

But Arnell will be the one smiling at work today. It’s because of what the judge wrote on page 1 of the ruling, explaining the background of the parties:

Peter Arnell … the founder and CEO of the Arnell group, is a successful and innovative marketer, product designer and brand-builder …

That’s the only part he’ll pay attention to.

Hat tip to CityFile.

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