diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index b7e366ef9..1ec4afb6d 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -217,6 +217,9 @@ fi
 rm "${release_text}"
 rm "${latest_changes}"
 
+# publish to npmjs
+npm publish
+
 if [ -z "$skip_jsdoc" ]; then
     echo "generating jsdocs"
     npm run gendoc
@@ -232,9 +235,6 @@ if [ -z "$skip_jsdoc" ]; then
     git commit --no-verify -m "Add jsdoc for $release" index.html "$release"
 fi
 
-# publish to npmjs
-npm publish
-
 # if it is a pre-release, leave it on the release branch for now.
 if [ $prerelease -eq 1 ]; then
     exit 0