diff --git a/anypubsub/backends/memory.py b/anypubsub/backends/memory.py
index 3649720..1b36492 100644
--- a/anypubsub/backends/memory.py
+++ b/anypubsub/backends/memory.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ def __init__(self, queue_factory=Queue):
         self.queue_factory = queue_factory
 
     def publish(self, channel, message):
-        subscribers = self.subscribers.get(channel, [])
+        subscribers = self.subscribers[channel]
         for subscriber in subscribers:
             subscriber.put(message)
         return len(subscribers)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e55056d..999bc76 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name='anypubsub',
-    version='0.4',
+    version='0.5',
     description="A generic interface wrapping multiple backends to provide a consistent pubsub API.",
     long_description=README,
     # Get strings from http://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=list_classifiers