diff -r 795d90c7820d Lib/distutils/command/upload.py
--- a/Lib/distutils/command/upload.py	Tue Apr 15 20:38:28 2014 +0200
+++ b/Lib/distutils/command/upload.py	Tue Apr 15 17:25:29 2014 -0400
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@
 
     def run(self):
         if not self.distribution.dist_files:
-            raise DistutilsOptionError("No dist file created in earlier command")
+            raise DistutilsOptionError("No dist file found. Provide a dist "
+                    "command prior to upload. e.g. 'python setup.py sdist upload'")
         for command, pyversion, filename in self.distribution.dist_files:
             self.upload_file(command, pyversion, filename)