diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9a15da95faea37ac2efa4e8994c0654105f82a9f..14b7851e513c01b1abb2aa2d7ebe87e65db65b97 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ Then copy your resulting wheel and install it via pip on the target system.
 
 # Changelog
 
+## v0.5.4
+
+* _TBA_
+
 ## v0.5.3
 
 * added `disable_mmap`, `enable_mmap` and `open_chunks_mmap_size` into `VarlenSeries`
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1ed60fa7247870da07fbf1427cc64506f297b7b7..fec8254ed6b8e951e880259d620d131124600f5a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ ext_modules = build([Multibuild('tempsdb', find_pyx('tempsdb'), **ext_kwargs), ]
                      **cythonize_kwargs)
 
 setup(name='tempsdb',
-      version='0.5.3',
+      version='0.5.4a1',
       packages=find_packages(include=['tempsdb', 'tempsdb.*']),
       install_requires=['satella>=2.14.24', 'ujson'],
       ext_modules=ext_modules,