diff --git a/.versionrc.json b/.versionrc.json
index 8e15e34f..7ba36eb8 100644
--- a/.versionrc.json
+++ b/.versionrc.json
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   "repository": "django-modeltranslation",
   "bumpFiles": [
     {
-      "filename": "modeltranslation/VERSION",
+      "filename": "VERSION",
       "type": "plain-text"
     }
   ]
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 40af27f9..2640f509 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
-include *.txt *.rst
+include *.txt *.rst VERSION
+prune modeltranslation/tests
 recursive-include docs *.rst conf.py Makefile make.bat
 recursive-include modeltranslation/static *
diff --git a/modeltranslation/VERSION b/VERSION
similarity index 100%
rename from modeltranslation/VERSION
rename to VERSION
diff --git a/modeltranslation/__init__.py b/modeltranslation/__init__.py
index 9f2f51da..ddefab6b 100644
--- a/modeltranslation/__init__.py
+++ b/modeltranslation/__init__.py
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@
 except ImportError:
     pass
 
-__version__ = (Path(__file__).parent / "VERSION").open().read().strip()
+__version__ = (Path(__file__).parent.parent / "VERSION").read_text().strip()