This how to is under development but it might help. Feel free to contribute.

1. Release information: ChangeLog, NEWS
2. Common information: README, AUTHORS, THANKS, TODO (when present)

1. Edit autoconf file configure.in.in or configure.ac.in which name you've chosen.
2. Remove svn from package_version_tag.
3. Check the build dependencies.

1. Commit all changes, for release, to trunk.
2. Do a new checkout from trunk, or rather an export.
3. Run ./autogen.sh in the clean checkout.
4. Run make distcheck
5. Check auto generated files: INSTALL, COPYING
6. If this works you're ready to tag the current trunk:

   svn copy https://svn.xfce.org/url/to/package/trunk https://svn.xfce.org/url/to/package/tags/package-version

1. Edit configure.in.in or configure.ac.in.
2. Change package_version_major, package_version_minor and package_version_micro version to the new release.
3. Re-add svn to package_version_tag.