Here's what I recommend for any author going forward:
An author is a human. In common with all authors, is a couple things: they've all written various works, across different categories.
I believe that every author excerpt should include, at least, the following items:
- Author Name
- Nationality
- Examples of well known works the author has written
- Examples of topics or genres the author has written about
- Maybe a fact or something about the author's life if we have space or if it may be important to know.
Bottom line, we want excerpts to give a brief overview of the author. We can't expect a biography, but it should give us some general sense of who the author is.
The next thing, like all excerpts, is usage guidance. What's the tag about? When should it be used? I won't exactly give any particular information here, since usage guidance varies from tag to tag. Generally speaking, you'll based any usage guidance on de facto site practices, or meta posts. If there are any quirks with the topic, be sure to include them - it's crucial information for any asker to know. I've made some general advice here.
As an example, I'll use Arundhati Roy, the author of The God of Small Things (as an example, and because I just recently read her book).
For questions about Arundhati Roy or her works, an Indian political activist and author most famously known for her essays and novel The God of Small Things.
I'll try and briefly answer a few of your questions:
Does it matter if these author tags don't follow a standardized format?
Yes. It's important. Standardization increases unity and transparency in the community, and developing a community approach is crucial for the site. For people who look at excerpts, it will be a way to ensure there is the basic information needed to illustrate an author to the casual reader.