diff --git a/tabulate/__init__.py b/tabulate/__init__.py
index 449f78c..90998a2 100644
--- a/tabulate/__init__.py
+++ b/tabulate/__init__.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 from decimal import Decimal
 from functools import partial, reduce
 from html import escape as htmlescape
-from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
 import io
 from itertools import chain, zip_longest as izip_longest
 import math
@@ -21,12 +20,15 @@
 except ImportError:
     wcwidth = None
 
+
 try:
-    __version__ = version("tabulate")  # installed package
-except PackageNotFoundError:
+    from ._version import version as __version__  # generated by flit_scm / setuptools_scm
+except ImportError:
+    from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version
+
     try:
-        from ._version import version as __version__  # editable / source checkout
-    except ImportError:
+        __version__ = version("tabulate")
+    except PackageNotFoundError:
         __version__ = "unknown"
 
 
diff --git a/test/test_api.py b/test/test_api.py
index cb59836..d6ba280 100644
--- a/test/test_api.py
+++ b/test/test_api.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """API properties."""
 
-from tabulate import simple_separated_format, tabulate, tabulate_formats
+from tabulate import __version__, simple_separated_format, tabulate, tabulate_formats
 
 from common import skip
 
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@
     _empty = None
 
 
+def test_tabulate_version():
+    "API: __version__ is a non-empty string"
+    assert type(__version__) is str
+    assert len(__version__) > 0
+
+
 def test_tabulate_formats():
     "API: tabulate_formats is a list of strings"
     supported = tabulate_formats