"I know it's not something everybody's comfortable with, and also I'm just a beginning podficcer and have an American accent so it might not be the best. So don't hesitate to say if you'd rather I not do it!" It's weird to me that that was a little more than two years ago, because my own attitude in it seems so foreign to me now.

I used to do the exact same thing. I'd fall overmyself giving them reasons to say no, my accent, my lack of skills, their lack of knowledge about what podfic was. Now I just say that I like their story and would like to record it, hopefully they'll say yes but if they say no then it has nothing to do with me personally (hopefully!)