The Pennsylvania publisher is on the alert for attractive celebrity memoirs, and Mary South, deputy editor of its Women's Publishing Group, just made an aggressive six-figure preemptive bid for one by singer Chaka Khan. She bought world rights in the highly successful singer's Through the Fire: The Life and Times, Ups and Downs, Arounds and Turnarounds of a Wild Child, in which she talks of her successes and difficulties, her drug problems and ultimate serenity, all written with Tonya Bolden, to be published around a year from now. The agent was Al Lowman at Authors and Artists. Rodale CEO Steve Murphy said the buy, an unusual one for the health issues—oriented house, represented a "new level of signings," particularly of authors with appeal to the women's market, which accounts for more than $120 million of the company's annual sales. Rodale has a group of new editors, including South, Jeremy Katz, Stephanie Tade and Tami Booth, with a mandate to seek out high-profile books for both the company's direct sales, via its clubs and magazines, and its trade sales, both of which are currently booming.