diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..05e8a4593
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.6.6
diff --git a/bookwyrm/settings.py b/bookwyrm/settings.py
index 94ec761db..16241f9df 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/settings.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/settings.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from typing import AnyStr
 
 from environs import Env
 
+
 import requests
 from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
@@ -14,7 +15,13 @@ from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 env = Env()
 env.read_env()
 DOMAIN = env("DOMAIN")
-VERSION = "0.6.6"
+
+with open("VERSION", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+    version = f.read()
+    version = version.replace("\n", "")
+f.close()
+
+VERSION = version
 
 RELEASE_API = env(
     "RELEASE_API",