Bruce Tracy's first acquisition as executive editor at Villard is a rumored $450,000 preempt to acquire Wear Clean Underwear: Secrets from Mom for Running a Business. Tracy loved the proposal from Gannett-syndicated small business columnist Rhonda Abrams so much that he made the offer soon after agent Daniel Greenberg, of James Levine Communications Inc., messengered it over. Tracy plans a spring 1999 publication for the book, which will get a boost even beyond Abrams' newspaper audience: she also writes a column for PriceCostco.