diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fcc785f..09454c0 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -50,8 +50,9 @@ def launch_http_server(directory):
 command = sys.argv[-1]
 if command == 'publish':
     os.system('rm -rf dist')    
-    os.system('python setup.py sdist')
+    os.system('python3 setup.py sdist')
     os.system('python3 setup.py bdist_wheel')
+    os.system('twine check dist/*')  # check for formatting or other issues that would cause twine upload to error out
     os.system('twine upload dist/*whl dist/*gz')
     sys.exit()
 elif command == "coverage":