diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index 4f520779f5b2..7affbb0bb51c 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-MD_TARGETS=$(addsuffix .xml, $(basename $(shell find . -type f -regex '.*\.md$$')))
+MD_TARGETS=$(addsuffix .xml, $(basename $(shell find . -type f -regex '.*\.md$$' -not -name README.md)))
 
 .PHONY: all
 all: validate format out/html/index.html out/epub/manual.epub
diff --git a/doc/README.md b/doc/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cb52608bde50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+
+# Nixpkgs/doc
+
+This directory houses the sources files for the Nixpkgs manual.
+
+You can find the [rendered documentation for Nixpkgs `unstable` on nixos.org](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/).
+
+If you want to contribute to the documentation, [here's how to do it](https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#chap-contributing).