diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 236e137..eb0bde5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # Publishing snapshot
 
 ```
-mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=0.0.2-`git rev-parse --short HEAD`-SNAPSHOT
+mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=`xpath -n -q -e '/project/version/text()' pom.xml | awk -F- '{print $1}'`-`git rev-parse --short HEAD`-SNAPSHOT
 mvn deploy
 ```
 
@@ -56,4 +56,4 @@
 svn co --depth files https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/cassandra/ release
 (gpg --list-sigs "<YOUR_NAME>" && gpg --armor --export "<YOUR_NAME>") >> KEYS
 svn commit KEYS -m "Add <YOUR NAME>'s key for releases" # or ask some PMC to do this for you by opening CASSANDRA jira, like this one: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-15534
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```