diff --git a/filer/__init__.py b/filer/__init__.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/filer/__init__.py
+++ b/filer/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #-*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # version string following pep-0396 and pep-0386
-__version__ = '0.9a4.dev1'  # pragma: nocover
+__version__ = '0.9b1'  # pragma: nocover
version bump to <I>b1