If you’re one of the tens of thousands of people who’ll be tramping down Hamilton’s main drag to celebrate IceFest, you might want to take a detour into Ryan’s Tavern, which will be supporting local and regional authors with BookFest.

“Most of the top floor will be devoted to it,” said Virginia Ryan, co-owner of Ryan’s Tavern. “We do the setting up, the taking down, the cleaning up. We don’t charge authors for the space. All they have to do is show up and start selling, and everything they make is theirs.”

Ryan is the founder and chairwoman not only of BookFest but also of the Mad Anthony Writer’s Conference, an annual workshop and networking event for aspiring writers held every April.

“BookFest used to be part of Mad Anthony, which gets larger and larger every year,” Ryan said. “So the IceFest people, who are friends of mine, asked us if we wanted to make BookFest part of IceFest. We thought it would be a good way to promote the conference and the authors.”

Ryan said that prospective, wandering book buyers can expect a variety of genres: local history, romance, mystery, nonfiction, memoir and so on. While a few of the authors are self-published, the majority of authors will be semi-established writers who’ve been traditionally published through university or small presses. Some of the more well-known attendees will be Christian author Bob Hostetler, a Hamilton resident; mystery/romance writer Duffy Brown and Dayton resident Martha Moody, whose 2001 novel, “Best Friends,” was a Washington Post bestseller.

“We’ll have 30 authors and 61 titles,” Ryan said. “Martha Moody is bringing three books.”

In addition to chatting with authors and receiving advice, aspiring authors can also participate in three workshops, free of charge. The first workshop will explore how to translate an initial idea into an actual novel. The second will give advice on organizing writing groups. The third will give the basics of characterization.

BookFest appears to be a more communal event between author and reader, much more so than the typical book signing.

“I had one author tell me she sold more books here than in any other venue,” she said. “It’s a good event for authors who are just starting out, or who aren’t on the top shelf at Barnes and Noble.”