diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9399b7b..b1e5bab 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,3 +3,21 @@ tailor
 ==========
 
 tailor is a tool for stitching small individual images (or regions thereof) together into tilemaps
+
+Status
+======
+
+Tailor is currently in pre-alpha. It currently performs some of its functions (tileset import, slicing, image exporting, library and project management) but the actual combining of individual tiles into new tilesets does not yet work.
+
+I expect to release 1.0 in a few weeks.
+
+Installing & Running
+====================
+
+This depends on [rvpacker](https://github.com/akesterson/rvpacker) and [wxruby](http://wxruby.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl), and is built with rake/bundler.
+
+    cd tailor
+    bundle install
+    rake build
+    gem install ./pkg/tailor*gem
+    tailor