diff --git a/docs/release.rst b/docs/release.rst
index 2296225b..b0387041 100644
--- a/docs/release.rst
+++ b/docs/release.rst
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
 To release a new version of pybind11:
 
 - Update version macros in `include/pybind11/common.h`
-- Update `pybind11/_version.py` (set release version, remove 'dev')
+- Update version in `setup.py`
 - `git add` and `git commit`.
 - `python setup.py sdist upload`.
 - `python setup.py bdist_wheel upload`.
 - `git tag -a X.X -m 'Release tag comment'`.
-- Update `_version.py` (add 'dev' and increment minor).
 - `git add` and `git commit`. `git push`. `git push --tags`.
 
 The remote for the last `git push --tags` should be the main repository for
diff --git a/pybind11/__init__.py b/pybind11/__init__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 4f1853b7..00000000
--- a/pybind11/__init__.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-from ._version import version_info, __version__
diff --git a/pybind11/_version.py b/pybind11/_version.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 6e1c20f9..00000000
--- a/pybind11/_version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-version_info = (1, 3, 'dev0')
-__version__ = '.'.join(map(str, version_info))
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d8c59872..3d910a76 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 # Setup script for PyPI; use CMakeFile.txt to build the example application
 
 from setuptools import setup
-from pybind11 import __version__
+
+__version__ = '1.3'
 
 setup(
     name='pybind11',
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@ setup(
     author_email='wenzel@inf.ethz.ch',
     url='https://github.com/wjakob/pybind11',
     download_url='https://github.com/wjakob/pybind11/tarball/v' + __version__,
-    packages=['pybind11'],
+    packages=[],
     license='BSD',
     headers=[
         'include/pybind11/attr.h',