diff --git a/paper/make_tarball.py b/paper/make_tarball.py
index 4e0459357..dd26db956 100644
--- a/paper/make_tarball.py
+++ b/paper/make_tarball.py
@@ -66,4 +66,4 @@
             for this_file in files:
                 myzip.write(this_file)
     else:
-        Exception('unrecognized output suffix')
+        raise Exception('unrecognized output suffix')