diff --git a/addon/.gitignore b/addon/.gitignore
index de88b84b..27f89dc2 100644
--- a/addon/.gitignore
+++ b/addon/.gitignore
@@ -25,3 +25,9 @@
 /package.json.ember-try
 
 .eslintcache
+
+# The authoritative copies of these live in the monorepo root (because they're
+# more useful on github that way), but the build copies them into here so they
+# will also appear in published NPM packages.
+/README.md
+/LICENSE.md
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 003c5dac..365439d1 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@
     "release-it": "^15.6.0"
   },
   "release-it": {
+    "hooks": {
+      "before:init": "cp README.md LICENSE.md addon/"
+    },
     "plugins": {
       "@release-it-plugins/workspaces": {
         "publish": false