diff --git a/update_version.sh b/update_version.sh
index 5b7b43e7..4493952d 100755
--- a/update_version.sh
+++ b/update_version.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,26 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+
 if [ -z $1 ]; then
-    echo "error: $0 needs a version number as argument. Current version: `python -c 'import dropbox; print(dropbox.__version__)'`";
+    echo "error: $0 needs a version number as argument.";
     exit 1
 else
     set -ex
+    NEW_VERSION=$1
+
+    git checkout master
+    git reset --hard HEAD
+    git checkout -b "tmp-release-${NEW_VERSION}"
+
     perl -pi -e "s/^__version__ = .*$/__version__ = '$1'/g" dropbox/dropbox.py
     perl -pi -e 's/(\?branch=)master$/\1\v'$1'/g ;' -e 's/(\?version=)latest$/\1\stable/g ;' -e 's/(\/en\/)latest(\/)$/\1\stable\2/g ;' -e 's/(\[Latest) (Documentation\])$/\1 Release \2/g ;' README.rst
+
+    git add -u
+    git commit -m "${NEW_VERSION} release"
+    git tag "v${NEW_VERSION}" -m "${NEW_VERSION} release"
+
+    git checkout master
+    git branch -D "tmp-release-${NEW_VERSION}"
+
+    git push origin
+    git push origin --tags
 fi