diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f83ff17..e36962b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@ tests/storage/dav/servers/*
 !tests/storage/dav/servers/__init__.py
 !tests/storage/dav/servers/radicale
 docs/_build/
+vdirsyncer/version.py
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1236d9a..8bb62c4 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@ from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
 setup(
     name='vdirsyncer',
-    use_scm_version=True,
+    use_scm_version={
+        'write_to': 'vdirsyncer/version.py',
+    },
     setup_requires=['setuptools_scm'],
     author='Markus Unterwaditzer',
     author_email='markus@unterwaditzer.net',
diff --git a/vdirsyncer/__init__.py b/vdirsyncer/__init__.py
index bd1b9be..15a8ede 100644
--- a/vdirsyncer/__init__.py
+++ b/vdirsyncer/__init__.py
@@ -4,7 +4,15 @@ vdirsyncer is a synchronization tool for vdir. See the README for more details.
 '''
 
 import pkg_resources
-__version__ = pkg_resources.get_distribution('vdirsyncer').version
+
+try:
+    from .version import version as __version__
+except ImportError:
+    raise ImportError(
+        'Failed to find (autogenerated) version.py. '
+        'This might be because you are installing from GitHub\'s tarballs, '
+        'use the PyPI ones.'
+    )
 
 PROJECT_HOME = 'https://github.com/untitaker/vdirsyncer'
 DOCS_HOME = 'https://vdirsyncer.readthedocs.org/en/latest'