diff --git a/.Rbuildignore b/.Rbuildignore
index e1f47cab..b4f00a45 100644
--- a/.Rbuildignore
+++ b/.Rbuildignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+^CRAN-RELEASE$
 ^.*\.Rproj$
 ^\.Rproj\.user$
 ^\.Rprofile$
diff --git a/CRAN-RELEASE b/CRAN-RELEASE
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9b170c66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CRAN-RELEASE
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+This package was submitted to CRAN on 2018-11-05.
+Once it is accepted, delete this file and tag the release (commit 403af29652).