diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index a675fe156..5906289e6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,17 @@ jobs:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v2
       - name: Prepare workspace snippet
-        run: .github/workflows/workspace_snippet.sh ${{ env.GITHUB_REF_NAME }} > release_notes.txt
+        run: .github/workflows/workspace_snippet.sh > release_notes.txt
+      - name: Build wheel dist
+        run: bazel build --stamp --embed_label=${{ env.GITHUB_REF_NAME }} //python/runfiles:wheel
+      - name: Publish runfiles package to PyPI
+        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
+        with:
+          # Note, the PYPI_API_TOKEN was added on
+          # https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_python/settings/secrets/actions 
+          # and currently uses a token which authenticates as https://pypi.org/user/alexeagle/
+          password: ${{ secrets.PYPI_API_TOKEN }}
+          packages_dir: bazel-bin/python/runfiles
       - name: Release
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
         with:
diff --git a/python/runfiles/BUILD.bazel b/python/runfiles/BUILD.bazel
index 2089c418d..ea171ccd8 100644
--- a/python/runfiles/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/python/runfiles/BUILD.bazel
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 load("//python:defs.bzl", "py_library")
+load("//python:packaging.bzl", "py_wheel")
 
 filegroup(
     name = "distribution",
@@ -22,6 +23,28 @@ filegroup(
 
 py_library(
     name = "runfiles",
-    srcs = ["runfiles.py"],
+    srcs = [
+        "__init__.py",
+        "runfiles.py",
+    ],
     visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
 )
+
+# This can be manually tested by running tests/runfiles/runfiles_wheel_integration_test.sh
+# We ought to have an automated integration test for it, too.
+# see https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_python/issues/1002
+py_wheel(
+    name = "wheel",
+    # From https://pypi.org/classifiers/
+    classifiers = [
+        "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
+        "License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License",
+    ],
+    description_file = "README.md",
+    distribution = "bazel_runfiles",
+    homepage = "https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_python",
+    strip_path_prefixes = ["python"],
+    version = "{BUILD_EMBED_LABEL}",
+    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
+    deps = [":runfiles"],
+)
diff --git a/python/runfiles/README.md b/python/runfiles/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..79ba82c1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/runfiles/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# bazel-runfiles library
+
+This is a Bazel Runfiles lookup library for Bazel-built Python binaries and tests.
+
+Typical Usage
+-------------
+
+1.  Add the 'runfiles' dependency along with other third-party dependencies, for example in your
+    `requirements.txt` file.
+
+2.  Depend on this runfiles library from your build rule, like you would other third-party libraries.
+
+      py_binary(
+          name = "my_binary",
+          ...
+          deps = [requirement("runfiles")],
+      )
+
+3.  Import the runfiles library.
+
+      import runfiles  # not "from runfiles import runfiles"
+
+4.  Create a Runfiles object and use rlocation to look up runfile paths:
+
+      r = runfiles.Create()
+      ...
+      with open(r.Rlocation("my_workspace/path/to/my/data.txt"), "r") as f:
+        contents = f.readlines()
+        ...
+
+    The code above creates a manifest- or directory-based implementations based
+    on the environment variables in os.environ. See `Create()` for more info.
+
+    If you want to explicitly create a manifest- or directory-based
+    implementations, you can do so as follows:
+
+      r1 = runfiles.CreateManifestBased("path/to/foo.runfiles_manifest")
+
+      r2 = runfiles.CreateDirectoryBased("path/to/foo.runfiles/")
+
+    If you wnat to start subprocesses, and the subprocess can't automatically
+    find the correct runfiles directory, you can explicitly set the right
+    environment variables for them:
+
+      import subprocess
+      import runfiles
+
+      r = runfiles.Create()
+      env = {}
+      ...
+      env.update(r.EnvVars())
+      p = subprocess.Popen([r.Rlocation("path/to/binary")], env, ...)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/python/runfiles/__init__.py b/python/runfiles/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..eb42f79c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/runfiles/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from .runfiles import *
diff --git a/python/runfiles/runfiles.py b/python/runfiles/runfiles.py
index 49a1e7b91..096040351 100644
--- a/python/runfiles/runfiles.py
+++ b/python/runfiles/runfiles.py
@@ -14,49 +14,7 @@
 
 """Runfiles lookup library for Bazel-built Python binaries and tests.
 
-USAGE:
-
-1.  Depend on this runfiles library from your build rule:
-
-      py_binary(
-          name = "my_binary",
-          ...
-          deps = ["@rules_python//python/runfiles"],
-      )
-
-2.  Import the runfiles library.
-
-      from python.runfiles import runfiles
-
-3.  Create a Runfiles object and use rlocation to look up runfile paths:
-
-      r = runfiles.Create()
-      ...
-      with open(r.Rlocation("my_workspace/path/to/my/data.txt"), "r") as f:
-        contents = f.readlines()
-        ...
-
-    The code above creates a manifest- or directory-based implementations based
-    on the environment variables in os.environ. See `Create()` for more info.
-
-    If you want to explicitly create a manifest- or directory-based
-    implementations, you can do so as follows:
-
-      r1 = runfiles.CreateManifestBased("path/to/foo.runfiles_manifest")
-
-      r2 = runfiles.CreateDirectoryBased("path/to/foo.runfiles/")
-
-    If you want to start subprocesses that also need runfiles, you need to set
-    the right environment variables for them:
-
-      import subprocess
-      from bazel_tools.tools.python.runfiles import runfiles
-
-      r = runfiles.Create()
-      env = {}
-      ...
-      env.update(r.EnvVars())
-      p = subprocess.Popen([r.Rlocation("path/to/binary")], env, ...)
+See README.md for usage instructions.
 """
 
 import os
diff --git a/tests/runfiles/runfiles_wheel_integration_test.sh b/tests/runfiles/runfiles_wheel_integration_test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..7faa02790
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/runfiles/runfiles_wheel_integration_test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Manual test, run outside of Bazel, to check that our runfiles wheel should be functional
+# for users who install it from pypi.
+set -o errexit 
+
+SCRIPTPATH="$( cd -- "$(dirname "$0")" >/dev/null 2>&1 ; pwd -P )"
+
+bazel 2>/dev/null build --stamp --embed_label=1.2.3 //python/runfiles:wheel
+wheelpath=$SCRIPTPATH/../../$(bazel 2>/dev/null cquery --output=files //python/runfiles:wheel)
+PYTHONPATH=$wheelpath python3 -c 'import importlib;print(importlib.import_module("runfiles"))'