The The Lizzie Bennet Diaries team have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a DVD boxset, and have already reached their goal. Plus – what will the next Austen series be?

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has taken the Veronica Mars approach to pay for a DVD boxset of the series. The Kickstarter campaign surpassed its goal of $60,000 in under three hours. Now the only question is – how high will it go (especially given there are 31 days left on the campaign).

In addition, the Kickstarter will fund a miniseries entitled Welcome to Sanditon, which will launch in early May. The series will star The Lizzie Bennet Diaries‘ Allison Paige as Gigi Darcy, and will be based on the unfinished 1817 novel by Pride and Prejudice author Jane Austen.

Series co-creator Hank Green announced the campaign, which is being run by Lizzie Bennet Diaries company Pemberley Digital. According to Green, the DVDs will include 8-9 discs, with behind-the-scenes features, interviews with the cast and crew, episode commentaries, and every video that was produced as part of the series.

In short? The Kickstarter description tells us “OK, so, this DVD set is freaking sweet, it’s so sexy it makes DVG look like a potato.” Additional perks include a Lizzie Bennet Diaries edition of Pride and Prejudice, posters autographed by the cast, and a voice mail recorded in character by Mr. Collins (Maxwell Glick), or William Darcy (Daniel Gordh).

The Kickstarter also clarified what Pemberley Digital have been up to recently with their search for Domino partners.

Sanditon was Jane Austen’s unfinished last novel. And while this mini-series willl include the usual episodes (assumedly told using the Domino application we first saw on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and transmedia elements, there’s something else. According to the Kickstarter page: “In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, you got to interact with the story. In WelcomeTo Sanditon, we’re taking things one step further —  you’ll get a chance to be a part of the story.” Ever prepared, you can already follow the new series on Twitter.

The showrunners of Welcome to Sanditon are Jay Bushman (Transmedia Producer and Writer on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and Margaret Dunlap (Writer and Consulting Producer on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries).

While the story has not yet been announced, the Kickstarter also states that Second Major Series (or the next book adaptation) will launch in Summer 2013. You can expect the DVD box set to arrive by July 2013.

Note: Artwork used is not final, but will “probably look something like this.”