diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 359afa5..dcbf3a6 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,10 +3,13 @@
 ''' Setup script for cmsplugin-blurp
 '''
 
+import os
+import subprocess
+
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 from setuptools.command.install_lib import install_lib as _install_lib
 from distutils.command.build import build as _build
-from distutils.command.sdist import sdist  as _sdist
+from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
 from distutils.cmd import Command
 
 class compile_translations(Command):
@@ -37,8 +40,20 @@ class compile_translations(Command):
 class build(_build):
     sub_commands = [('compile_translations', None)] + _build.sub_commands
 
-class sdist(_sdist):
-    sub_commands = [('compile_translations', None)] + _sdist.sub_commands
+class eo_sdist(sdist):
+    sub_commands = [('compile_translations', None)] + sdist.sub_commands
+
+    def run(self):
+        if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+            os.remove('VERSION')
+        version = get_version()
+        version_file = open('VERSION', 'w')
+        version_file.write(version)
+        version_file.close()
+        sdist.run(self)
+        if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+            os.remove('VERSION')
+
 
 class install_lib(_install_lib):
     def run(self):
@@ -46,35 +61,19 @@ class install_lib(_install_lib):
         _install_lib.run(self)
 
 def get_version():
-    import glob
-    import re
-    import os
-
-    version = None
-    for d in glob.glob('src/*'):
-        if not os.path.isdir(d):
-            continue
-        module_file = os.path.join(d, '__init__.py')
-        if not os.path.exists(module_file):
-            continue
-        for v in re.findall("""__version__ *= *['"](.*)['"]""",
-                open(module_file).read()):
-            assert version is None
-            version = v
-        if version:
-            break
-    assert version is not None
+    if os.path.exists('VERSION'):
+        version_file = open('VERSION', 'r')
+        version = version_file.read()
+        version_file.close()
+        return version
     if os.path.exists('.git'):
-        import subprocess
-        p = subprocess.Popen(['git','describe','--dirty','--match=v*'],
-                stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+        p = subprocess.Popen(['git', 'describe', '--dirty', '--match=v*'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
         result = p.communicate()[0]
-        assert p.returncode == 0, 'git returned non-zero'
-        new_version = result.split()[0][1:]
-        assert new_version.split('-')[0] == version, '__version__ must match the last git annotated tag'
-        version = new_version.replace('-', '.')
-    return version
-
+        if p.returncode == 0:
+            version = result.split()[0][1:]
+            version = version.replace('-', '.')
+            return version
+    return '0'
 
 setup(name="django-cmsplugin-blurp",
       version=get_version(),
@@ -109,6 +108,6 @@ setup(name="django-cmsplugin-blurp",
           'build': build,
           'install_lib': install_lib,
           'compile_translations': compile_translations,
-          'sdist': sdist,
+          'sdist': eo_sdist,
       },
 )
diff --git a/src/cmsplugin_blurp/__init__.py b/src/cmsplugin_blurp/__init__.py
index ff987d2..e69de29 100644
--- a/src/cmsplugin_blurp/__init__.py
+++ b/src/cmsplugin_blurp/__init__.py
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-__version__ = '1.10.1'