McSweeney's distributor was Publishers Group West (PGW) from 2002 until the end of 2006, when its parent company, Advanced Marketing Services, filed for bankruptcy.

In October 2014, Dave Eggers announced that McSweeney's would become a nonprofit publishing house and asked readers for donations for several projects.

[6] In 2015, McSweeney's expanded into brand copywriting, working in partnership with marketers at Converse, Warby Parker, and Airbnb.

[8] In 2004, Eggers said that when he was a child his family received letters from someone named Timothy McSweeney, who claimed to be a relative of his mother.

Emerging writers involved with McSweeney's include Rebecca Curtis, Paul Legault, Philipp Meyer, and Wells Tower.

"[15] In 2019, Vida hailed Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern as the magazine that publishes the highest percentage of women and trans writers (71%) compared to peer publications.