diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bc2866b..68e6cfa 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,13 +13,13 @@ You can clone the repo like so:
 First you need a system-wide installation of the Capnproto C++ library >= 0.2. All you need to do is follow the official [installation docs](http://kentonv.github.io/capnproto/install.html)].
 Also on my ubuntu 12.10 box, I had to run `sudo ldconfig` after installation to make sure the libcapnp library was picked up by the linker.
 
-You also need a working version of the latest [Cython](http://cython.org/) and the latest version of setuptools. This is easily done with:
+You also need a working version of the latest [Cython](http://cython.org/) and the latest version of setuptools. This is easily done (assuming you've already installed pip):
 
     pip install -U cython setuptools
 
 ## Building and installation
 
-`cd` into the repo directory and run `python setup.py install` or `pip install .`
+`cd` into the repo directory and run `pip install .`
 
 ## Documentation/Example
 At the moment, there is no documenation, but the library is almost a 1:1 clone of the [Capnproto C++ Library](http://kentonv.github.io/capnproto/cxx.html)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5f19741..e7e6700 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,12 +8,20 @@ except ImportError:
 if Cython.__version__ < '0.19.1':
     raise RuntimeError('Old cython installed. Please run `pip install -U cython`')
 
+try:
+    import setuptools
+except ImportError:
+    raise RuntimeError('No setuptools installed. Please run `pip install setuptools`')
+
+if setuptools.__version__ < '.0.9.8':
+    raise RuntimeError('Old setuptools installed. Please run `pip install -U setuptools`')
+
 from distutils.core import setup
 import os
 
 MAJOR = 0
 MINOR = 2
-MICRO = 7
+MICRO = 8
 VERSION = '%d.%d.%d' % (MAJOR, MINOR, MICRO)