Giancarlo DiTrapano is quoted in the Los Angeles Review of Books as saying: "It would have taken forever for me to do anything I wanted to do [working for a traditional publishing house], but I had a little money, so I started a press."

In 2006, he founded New York Tyrant Magazine, which published "writers the big houses refused to touch".

The magazine was put on hiatus until December 2016, when it was brought back as an online journal, with Jordan Castro as editor.

In 2014, Tyrant Books published Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish, winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Prize for fiction.

Its stated mission is "to extend the legacy of our namesake, publisher Giancarlo DiTrapano, by funding and hosting creative residencies, fostering communities of creativity through readings and other events, and maintaining an editorial archive at our 17th-century villa and cultural center in Sezze Romano, Italy.