diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bc65f319c4..4c69c5e5b4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,15 +1,9 @@
 # tskit
 The tree sequence toolkit
 
-**This repository is a placeholder, and currently only exists to ensure the 
-  name isn't taken on PyPI.**
+**This repository is currently under heavy development.**
 
-Currently, the `tskit` tools are still bundled with the Python package [`msprime`](https://github.com/tskit-dev/msprime).
-We expect to separate the two soon,
-but to use `tskit` in the meantime, [install `msprime`](https://msprime.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html),
-and then
-```
-import msprime as tskit
-```
-will get you the functionality that `tskit` will provide in the future.
+Currently, the `tskit` tools are bundled with the Python package 
+[`msprime`](https://github.com/tskit-dev/msprime) and we are in the process
+of extracting them here.
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 61c3967f23..0000000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-from setuptools import setup
-
-setup(
-    name="tskit",
-    version="0.0.0",
-    description="The tree sequence toolkit",
-    long_description="**HOLDING PAGE**; real package coming soon!",
-    url="https://github.com/tskit-dev/tskit",
-    author="The tskit developers",
-    author_email="jerome.kelleher@well.ox.uk",
-    packages=["tskit"],
-    zip_safe=False
-)