diff --git a/readability/__init__.py b/readability/__init__.py
index abcf201..0f1ee49 100644
--- a/readability/__init__.py
+++ b/readability/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-from ._version import VERSION
+# -*- coding: utf8 -*-
 
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+from __future__ import division, print_function, unicode_literals
 
-__version__ = VERSION
+
+__version__ = "0.1.11"
diff --git a/readability/_version.py b/readability/_version.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 677689f..0000000
--- a/readability/_version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-VERSION = '0.1.11'
diff --git a/readability/scripts/client.py b/readability/scripts/client.py
index e695a53..9425f09 100644
--- a/readability/scripts/client.py
+++ b/readability/scripts/client.py
@@ -32,12 +32,12 @@ import webbrowser
 
 from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
 from docopt import docopt
-from .._version import VERSION
+from .. import __version__
 from ..readable import Article
 
 
 def parse_args():
-    return docopt(__doc__, version=VERSION)
+    return docopt(__doc__, version=__version__)
 
 
 def main():
diff --git a/readability/scripts/test_helper.py b/readability/scripts/test_helper.py
index 9f66d91..b2662a3 100644
--- a/readability/scripts/test_helper.py
+++ b/readability/scripts/test_helper.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from __future__ import division, print_function, unicode_literals
 from os import mkdir
 from os.path import join, dirname, pardir, exists as path_exists
 from docopt import docopt
-from .._version import VERSION
+from .. import __version__
 from .._py3k import to_unicode, urllib
 
 
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ class TestArticle(unittest.TestCase):
 
 
 def parse_args():
-    return docopt(__doc__, version=VERSION)
+    return docopt(__doc__, version=__version__)
 
 
 def make_test_directory(name):