diff --git a/hack/generate-changelog.sh b/hack/generate-changelog.sh
index 8324350c..32d1ce38 100755
--- a/hack/generate-changelog.sh
+++ b/hack/generate-changelog.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,12 @@ Options:
 EOF
 }
 
-VERSION=""
+LIB_VERSION=$(awk -F= '/^LIB_VERSION/ { print $2 }' versions.mk | tr -d '[:space:]')
+LIB_TAG=$(awk -F= '/^LIB_TAG/ { print $2 }' versions.mk | tr -d '[:space:]')
+
+VERSION="v${LIB_VERSION}${LIB_TAG+-${LIB_TAG}}"
+>&2 echo "VERSION=$VERSION"
+
 REFERENCE=
 
 # Parse command line options
@@ -74,9 +79,9 @@ fi
 >&2 echo "Using ${REFERENCE} as previous version"
 
 # Print the changelog
-echo "## Changelog"
+echo "# Changelog"
 echo ""
-echo "### Version $VERSION"
+echo "## $VERSION"
 
 # Iterate over the commit messages and ignore the ones that start with "Merge" or "Bump"
 git log --pretty=format:"%s" $REFERENCE..@ | grep -Ev "(^Merge )|(^Bump)|(no-rel-?note)|(^---)" |  sed 's/^\(.*\)/- \1/g'
diff --git a/hack/prepare-release.sh b/hack/prepare-release.sh
index c4aaf4f2..b52dbe08 100755
--- a/hack/prepare-release.sh
+++ b/hack/prepare-release.sh
@@ -165,8 +165,11 @@ echo "Creating a version bump branch: bump-release-${release}"
 git checkout -f -b bump-release-${release}
 
 # Patch versions.mk
+LIB_VERSION=${${release%-*}#v}
+LIB_TAG=${release#*-}
 echo Patching versions.mk to refer to $release
-$SED -i "s/^VERSION.*$/VERSION ?= $release/" versions.mk
+$SED -i "s/^LIB_VERSION.*$/LIB_VERSION := $LIB_VERSION/" versions.mk
+$SED -i "s/^LIB_TAG.*$/LIB_TAG := $LIB_TAG/" versions.mk
 
 git add versions.mk
 git commit -s -m "Bump version for $release release"