diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5d857335..ec74e684 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,62 @@
+Notmuch 0.18.1~rc0 (2014-06-22)
+===============================
+
+This is a bug fix and portability release.
+
+Build System
+------------
+
+Add a workaround for systems without zlib.pc.
+
+Make emacs install robust against the non-existence of emacs.
+
+Put notmuch lib directory first in RPATH.
+
+Fix handling of html_static_path in sphinx
+
+  Both the python bindings and the main docs had spurious settings of
+  this variable.
+
+Test Suite
+----------
+
+Use --quick when starting emacs
+
+  This avoids a hang in the T160-json tests.
+
+Allow pending break points in atomicity script
+
+  This allows the atomicity tests to run on several more architectures/OSes.
+
+Command-Line Interface
+----------------------
+
+To improve portability use fsync instead of fdatasync in
+`notmuch-dump`. There should be no functional difference.
+
+Library changes
+---------------
+
+Resurrect support for single-message mbox files
+
+  The removal introduced a bug with previously indexed single-message
+  mboxes.  This support remains deprecated.
+
+Fix for phrase indexing
+
+  There were several bugs involving overlapping "phrases" accross
+  header and mime part boundaries.  This fix will effect only newly
+  (re)-indexed messages.
+
+Emacs Interface
+---------------
+
+Make sure tagging on an empty query is harmless
+
+  Previously tagging an empty query could lead to tags being
+  unintentionally removed.
+
+
 Notmuch 0.18 (2014-05-06)
 =========================
 
diff --git a/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py b/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py
index c3e96d2e..2f7ae23f 100644
--- a/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py
+++ b/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 # this file should be kept in sync with ../../../version
-__VERSION__ = '0.18'
+__VERSION__ = '0.18.1~rc0'
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 3b7e00d7..3961b0dc 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-notmuch (0.18.1-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+notmuch (0.18.1~rc0-1) experimental; urgency=medium
 
   * New upstream bug fix release
   * Tighten dependence of python packages on libnotmuch
diff --git a/version b/version
index a4d2acee..4421ee9b 100644
--- a/version
+++ b/version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.18
+0.18.1~rc0