NEW YORK (AP) — The success of Patti Smith’s memoir “Just Kids,” about her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe, sealed her reputation as a wide-ranging artist and writer at the heartbeat of New York City.

The 2010 best-seller about growing up in New York’s art scene won the National Book Award for nonfiction and is her most successful project yet in any format. But whether her new literary fans will translate into more buyers of her music is a question Smith has been asking herself of late.