diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4068fdd..e570ec0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ The project is split into six crates:
 - `dxr_server`: generic XML-RPC server functionality
 - `dxr_server_axum`: XML-RPC server implementation using `axum`
 
+It is recommended to only add a direct dependency on `dxr` and to enable the required features.
+
 ### Why another crate for XML-RPC?
 
 Searching for `xml-rpc` on crates.io yields a few results, but they all did not fit my
diff --git a/dxr_client/README.md b/dxr_client/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d05204
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dxr_client/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# DXR: declarative XML-RPC (client implementation)
+
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/dxr_client.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_client/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/d/dxr_client.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_client/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/l/dxr_client.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_client/)
+[![docs.rs](https://docs.rs/dxr_client/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/dxr_client/)
+
+The dxr project provides crates for writing XML-RPC API clients and servers in Rust.
+
+This crate contains an implementation of an `async` XML-RPC client using `reqwest`.  The client
+functionality is re-exported from the `dxr` crate when the `client` feature is enabled, so
+this crate should be considered an internal implementation detail, and never be imported or
+used directly.
diff --git a/dxr_server/README.md b/dxr_server/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26329aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dxr_server/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# DXR: declarative XML-RPC (server implementation)
+
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/dxr_server.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_server/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/d/dxr_server.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_server/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/l/dxr_server.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_server/)
+[![docs.rs](https://docs.rs/dxr_server/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/dxr_server/)
+
+The dxr project provides crates for writing XML-RPC API clients and servers in Rust.
+
+This crate contains a basic implementation of an `async` XML-RPC server. The server functionality
+is re-exported from the `dxr` crate when the `server` feature is enabled, so this crate should be
+considered an internal implementation detail, and never be imported or used directly.
diff --git a/dxr_server_axum/README.md b/dxr_server_axum/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6bf146d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dxr_server_axum/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# DXR: declarative XML-RPC (axum server)
+
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/dxr_server_axum.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_server_axum/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/d/dxr_server_axum.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_server_axum/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/l/dxr_server_axum.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_server_axum/)
+[![docs.rs](https://docs.rs/dxr_server_axum/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/dxr_server_axum/)
+
+The dxr project provides crates for writing XML-RPC API clients and servers in Rust.
+
+This crate contains an implementation of an `async` XML-RPC server using `axum`. This functionality
+is re-exported from the `dxr` crate when the `server-axum` feature is enabled, so this crate should be
+considered an internal implementation detail, and never be imported or used directly.
diff --git a/dxr_shared/README.md b/dxr_shared/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71d6bad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dxr_shared/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# DXR: declarative XML-RPC (shared implementation details)
+
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/dxr_shared.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_shared/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/d/dxr_shared.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_shared/)
+[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/l/dxr_shared.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/dxr_shared/)
+[![docs.rs](https://docs.rs/dxr_shared/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/dxr_shared/)
+
+The dxr project provides crates for writing XML-RPC API clients and servers in Rust.
+
+This crate contains implementations of type conversions between XML strings, XML-RPC values, and
+the corresponding Rust types. This functionality should be considered an internal implementation
+detail, and never be imported or used directly.