diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index cb174d5..589268e 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.2.1
\ No newline at end of file
+1.3.0
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/cpp_common.hpp b/src/cpp_common.hpp
index 371b67f..d90c9d8 100644
--- a/src/cpp_common.hpp
+++ b/src/cpp_common.hpp
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ struct proc_string {
     size_t length;
 };
 
-static inline proc_string convert_string(PyObject* py_str, char* err)
+static inline proc_string convert_string(PyObject* py_str, const char* err)
 {
     proc_string str = {0, NULL, 0};
 
diff --git a/src/rapidfuzz-cpp b/src/rapidfuzz-cpp
index 04bd0ad..ba7854e 160000
--- a/src/rapidfuzz-cpp
+++ b/src/rapidfuzz-cpp
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 04bd0adb1d6cebd0d5fec7ba984b6239d32ffe5a
+Subproject commit ba7854e559e5665a07c517d7e8282374809281ab
diff --git a/src/rapidfuzz/__init__.py b/src/rapidfuzz/__init__.py
index 89dc540..e00fd8b 100644
--- a/src/rapidfuzz/__init__.py
+++ b/src/rapidfuzz/__init__.py
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ rapid string matching library
 """
 __author__ = "Max Bachmann"
 __license__ = "MIT"
-__version__ = "1.2.1"
+__version__ = "1.3.0"
 
 from rapidfuzz import process, fuzz, utils, levenshtein, string_metric