diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2382cabe..b14464d0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -52,3 +52,4 @@ exp/
 _extras/
 *.sublime-*
 site/
+jrnl/VERSION.txt
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index fea48f50..3eda0c9a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ script:
 before_deploy:
   - pip install poetry
   - poetry config http-basic.pypi $PYPI_USER $PYPI_PASS
+  - echo $TRAVIS_TAG > jrnl/VERSION.txt
   - poetry version $TRAVIS_TAG
   - poetry build
 deploy:
diff --git a/jrnl/__init__.py b/jrnl/__init__.py
index 57664dbb..f1cdc3c4 100644
--- a/jrnl/__init__.py
+++ b/jrnl/__init__.py
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # encoding: utf-8
 
-import pkg_resources
+import os
 
-dist = pkg_resources.get_distribution('jrnl')
-__title__ = dist.project_name
-__version__ = dist.version
+__title__ = "jrnl"
+__version__ = "source"
 
+version_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), "VERSION.txt")
+if os.path.exists(version_path):
+    with open(version_path) as version_file:
+        __version__ = version_file.read()
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 1b84acde..df18f9da 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ license = "MIT"
 readme = "README.md"
 homepage = "https://jrnl.sh"
 repository = "https://github.com/jrnl-org/jrnl"
+include = ["VERSION.txt"]
 
 [tool.poetry.dependencies]
 python = "^3.7"