diff --git a/scripts/manual-publish.js b/scripts/manual-publish.js
index 22aaa72f..ae7b300e 100644
--- a/scripts/manual-publish.js
+++ b/scripts/manual-publish.js
@@ -17,7 +17,10 @@ const DEFAULT_BRANCH = process.env.DEFAULT_BRANCH;
 const isLatestRelease = BRANCH === DEFAULT_BRANCH || BRANCH.includes("release-");
 let tag = "latest";
 
-const OLD_VERSION = require("../lib/package.json").version;
+const pkg = require("../lib/package.json");
+
+const OLD_VERSION = pkg.version;
+
 if (!isLatestRelease) {
   /** pre-release branch name should be the tag name (e.g., beta, canery, etc.) or tag name followed by a '-' and version or other specifiers. e.g. beta-2.0 */
   tag = BRANCH.split("-")[0];