diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index fc1938d..620b451 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -17,8 +17,13 @@ too much ultimately but consistency within a codebase is important.
 
 ## Local development
 
-To build the project make a `build/` folder and run `cmake ..`, along with any cmake configurations
-you desire. Then run `make -j` or `msbuild cpptrace.sln`.
+The easiest way to get started with local development is running `make debug` (which automatically configures cmake and
+builds). Note: This requires ninja at the moment.
+
+For more control over how the library is built you can manually build with cmake:
+
+`cmake ..` in a `build/` folder along with any cmake configurations you desire. Then run `make -j` or `ninja` or
+`msbuild cpptrace.sln`.
 
 Some useful configurations:
 - `-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug|Release|RelWithDebInfo`: Build in debug / release / etc.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c98dea8..01de41b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ Cpptrace also has a C API, docs [here](docs/c-api.md).
   - [Summary of Library Configurations](#summary-of-library-configurations)
 - [Testing Methodology](#testing-methodology)
 - [Notes About the Library and Future Work](#notes-about-the-library-and-future-work)
+- [Contributing](#contributing)
 - [License](#license)
 
 # 30-Second Overview
@@ -968,6 +969,11 @@ A couple things I'd like to improve in the future:
 A couple features I'd like to add in the future:
 - Tracing other thread's stacks
 
+# Contributing
+
+I'm grateful for the help I've received with this library and I welcome contributions! For information on contributing
+please refer to [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md).
+
 # License
 
 This library is under the MIT license.