That happens, Farhad. On one of my collaborative book projects, my co-author and I had split up who was going to be the primary author for which chapters. As it happened, though, I wrote faster than my less experienced co-author, who also had more family and work obligations. So we adjusted the distribution as we went along, with me writing more than we had originally planned. It worked out okay.

During any collaboration, each participant has both the right and responsibility to say to the others, "Here's what I need from you for us to be successful together. What do you need from me?" And then recognize that you need to have a discussion if the work gets to be too lopsided.

The group should also agree on how they're going to make decisions from the very beginning. If decisions become too skewed in favor of one party, either the process should be adjusted or some participants aren't doing their part in the decision making, such as not standing up for themselves or being overly dominant.

My basic philosophy is to deal with a concern before it becomes a crisis!