Lindsay Lohan's art of the book deal consists of agreeing to write it, getting a huge sum of money and then failing to turn in a draft ... at least according to a new suit.
Publishing company HarperCollins is going after Lohan, claiming she breached a contract she signed way back in March 2014 to write a book. According to the legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Lohan and her production company promised she'd have it completed by May 2015 ... but it never happened.
Instead, HarperCollins claims it revised the due date to March 2017, and even paid her a $365,000 advance against future royalties.
However, HarperCollins claims the deadlines came and went, and Lindsay never delivered a manuscript. So, the publisher says it informed her in Sept. 2018 the book deal was off, and it wanted its money back. There's a lawsuit, so you guessed it ... HC says LiLo never refunded the cash.
HarperCollins is suing Lohan for the $365k plus interest and legal fees. We reached out to Lindsay ... no word back so far.