diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 15eefd70..1ee1b0b5 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 graft docs
+prune docs/_build
+global-exclude *.py[cod] __pycache__
 include LICENSE
 include version.json
 include *.txt
diff --git a/blessed/__init__.py b/blessed/__init__.py
index c5a553c0..aad51e80 100644
--- a/blessed/__init__.py
+++ b/blessed/__init__.py
@@ -18,4 +18,4 @@
                       'support due to http://bugs.python.org/issue10570.')
 
 __all__ = ('Terminal',)
-__version__ = '1.17.7'
+__version__ = '1.17.8'
diff --git a/version.json b/version.json
index 0b309bc9..4ff72aad 100644
--- a/version.json
+++ b/version.json
@@ -1 +1 @@
-{"version": "1.17.7"}
+{"version": "1.17.8"}