diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 20dcd4c..2475c2b 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -119,30 +119,31 @@
                 </executions>
             </plugin>
 
-             <plugin>
-            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>3.3.0</version>
+                <configuration>
+                    <appendAssemblyId>true</appendAssemblyId>
+                    <descriptors>
+                        <descriptor>src/assembly/jar-distribution.xml</descriptor>
+                        <descriptor>src/assembly/bin-distribution.xml</descriptor>
+                    </descriptors>
+                    <archive>
+                        <manifest>
+                            <mainClass>org.ids_mannheim.TotalNGrams</mainClass>
+                        </manifest>
+                    </archive>
+                </configuration>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
+                        <id>make-assembly</id>
                         <phase>package</phase>
                         <goals>
                             <goal>single</goal>
                         </goals>
                     </execution>
                 </executions>
-                <configuration>
-                    <archive>
-                        <index>true</index>
-                        <manifest>
-                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
-                            <classpathPrefix>dependency/</classpathPrefix>
-                            <mainClass>org.ids_mannheim.TotalNGrams</mainClass>
-                        </manifest>
-                    </archive>
-                    <descriptorRefs>
-                        <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
-                    </descriptorRefs>
-                    <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
-                </configuration>
             </plugin>
 
             <plugin>
@@ -158,8 +159,14 @@
                     </execution>
                 </executions>
                 <configuration>
+                    <!--we use the appassembler-maven-plugin only to generate shell script wrappers -->
                     <binFolder>bin</binFolder>
                     <extraJvmArguments>-XX:MaxRAMPercentage=85 -Dgroovy.grape.enable=false</extraJvmArguments>
+                    <useWildcardClassPath>true</useWildcardClassPath>
+                    <repositoryLayout>flat</repositoryLayout>
+                    <generateRepository>false</generateRepository>
+                    <repositoryName>.</repositoryName>
+                    <assembleDirectory>${project.build.directory}</assembleDirectory>
                     <binFileExtensions>
                         <unix/>
                     </binFileExtensions>
diff --git a/src/assembly/bin-distribution.xml b/src/assembly/bin-distribution.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3717d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/assembly/bin-distribution.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<assembly xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+          xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/ASSEMBLY/2.1.0"
+          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/ASSEMBLY/2.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-2.1.0.xsd">
+    <id>bin</id>
+    <formats>
+        <format>zip</format>
+    </formats>
+    <fileSets>
+        <fileSet>
+            <directory>${project.basedir}</directory>
+            <includes>
+                <include>*.md</include>
+            </includes>
+            <useDefaultExcludes>true</useDefaultExcludes>
+        </fileSet>
+        <fileSet>
+            <directory>${project.basedir}/target</directory>
+            <outputDirectory>.</outputDirectory>
+            <includes>
+                <include>bin/**</include>
+                <include>*-standalone.jar</include>
+            </includes>
+            <useDefaultExcludes>true</useDefaultExcludes>
+        </fileSet>
+    </fileSets>
+</assembly>
diff --git a/src/assembly/jar-distribution.xml b/src/assembly/jar-distribution.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7e4482
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/assembly/jar-distribution.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/ASSEMBLY/2.1.0"
+          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/ASSEMBLY/2.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-2.1.0.xsd">
+    <id>standalone</id>
+    <formats>
+        <format>jar</format>
+    </formats>
+    <includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
+    <dependencySets>
+        <dependencySet>
+            <outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
+            <useProjectArtifact>false</useProjectArtifact>
+            <unpack>true</unpack>
+            <scope>runtime</scope>
+        </dependencySet>
+    </dependencySets>
+    <fileSets>
+        <fileSet>
+            <directory>${project.basedir}</directory>
+            <outputDirectory>META-INF/</outputDirectory>
+            <includes>
+                <include>README*</include>
+                <include>Readme*</include>
+                <include>LICENSE*</include>
+            </includes>
+            <useDefaultExcludes>true</useDefaultExcludes>
+        </fileSet>
+        <fileSet>
+            <outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
+            <directory>${project.build.outputDirectory}</directory>
+        </fileSet>
+    </fileSets>
+</assembly>
\ No newline at end of file