diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 23b18daafbe94d741d76502c310d9acf66be5f6e..257a7deef295ab4057c08332c4e4470807b32542 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 # ligo-gracedb
-Client software for the <b>Gra</b>vitational-wave <b>C</b>andidate <b>E</b>vent <b>D</b>ata<b>b</b>ase, a web service that organizes candidate events from gravitational wave searches and provides an environment to record information about follow-ups.
+The <b>Gra</b>vitational-wave <b>C</b>andidate <b>E</b>vent <b>D</b>ata<b>b</b>ase (GraceDB) is a web service designed for aggregating and communicating information about candidate events from gravitational-wave searches and associated follow-ups.
+`ligo-gracedb` provides a Python-based client tool for facilitating interactions with the GraceDB API.
 
+
+## Documentation
 For more information, see the [full documentation](https://gw.readthedocs.io/ligo-gracedb/).
 
+
 ## Quick install
 ```python
 pip install ligo-gracedb
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b84f84e26b71ae21d076a1467dc4589a1ecc6603..1cd40128ed261a733a31d5b6cf0ae7a2a645ba02 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import os
 import re
 import sys
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
-import textwrap
 
 
 def parse_version(path):
@@ -34,6 +33,11 @@ def parse_version(path):
     raise RuntimeError("Unable to find version string.")
 
 
+# Get readme file for long_description
+readme_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'README.md')
+with open(readme_file, 'r') as f:
+    long_description = f.read()
+
 # Required packages for tests
 tests_require = []
 # Add pytest requirement - 5.0.0+ only supports Python 3.5+
@@ -83,13 +87,9 @@ setup(
     author=("Tanner Prestegard, Alexander Pace, Branson Stephens, Brian Moe, "
             "Patrick Brady"),
     author_email="tanner.prestegard@ligo.org, alexander.pace@ligo.org",
-    description="A Python package for accessing the GraceDB API",
-    long_description=textwrap.dedent("""\
-        The gravitational wave candidate event database (GraceDB) is a system
-        to organize candidate events from gravitational wave searches and to
-        provide an environment to record information about follow-ups. This
-        package provides a client tool to interact with the GraceDB API.
-    """).rstrip(),
+    description="A Python package for accessing the GraceDB API.",
+    long_description=long_description,
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
     url="https://git.ligo.org/lscsoft/gracedb-client",
     license='GPL-3.0-or-later',
     namespace_packages=['ligo'],